hackers

Noun

hacker (plural hackers)

1. Someone who hacks.
   • A hacker hacked into his computer account yesterday.
   1. One who cuts with heavy or rough blows.
      • [O]ne good hacker, being a luſty labourer, vvill at good eaſe hacke or cut more then halfe an Acre of ground in a day; […]1625, Gervase Markham, “Of the Ordering, Tilling, and Dressing of All Sorts of Plaine Barren Clayes, whether They be Simple or Compounded”, in Markhams Farwell to Husbandry or, The Inriching of All...
   2. One who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity, especially (sports, originally and chiefly golf), a sport such as golf or tennis.
      • a tennis hacker
   3. (dated) One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer.
      • The Electrical Engineering Department, J. McKenzie in particular, for allowing me to use the PDP-1 computer to do the extensive computations, draw graphs, and even type this thesis. In this connection Charles Landau did some of the programming, Luella Thompson did most of the typing, and W. B....1968 September, Rory [Jack] Thompson; Louis N[orberg] Howard, thesis supervisor, “Acknowledgments”, in Instabilities of Some Time-dependent Flows (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), Cambridge, Mass....
   4. (broadly, dated) One who applies a novel method, shortcut, skill, or trick to something to increase ease, efficiency, or productivity.
      • food hacker
   5. (computer security) One who uses a computer to gain unauthorized access to data stored in, or to carry out malicious attacks on, computer networks or computer systems.
      • a phone hacker

See all 12 meanings of hacker