Word.ws English Dictionary

hackney

/ˈhækni//hækni/

hackney noun: an ordinary horse.

Noun

hackney (countable and uncountable, plural hackneys)

  1. (archaic) An ordinary horse.
  2. A carriage for hire or a cab.
    • "Mamma would die if she knew. The boy," replied Georgiana, "walked with us to Oxford Street, and we took a hackney-coach. Will Mrs. Gooch ever forgive us for getting out of it at her door?"1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 186
  3. A horse used to ride or drive.
  4. A breed of English horse.
  5. (archaic) A hired drudge; a hireling; a prostitute.
  6. (archaic, uncountable) Inferior writing; literary hackwork.
    • Not that the existence of Grub street is to be doubted: it was, indeed, a grim actuality, and many a garreter realised by experience
      How unhappy's the fate
      To live by one's pate
      And to be forced to write hackney for bread.quoted in 1972, Pat Rogers, Grub Street: Studies in a Subculture (page 384)

Adjective

hackney (not comparable)

  1. Offered for hire.
    • hackney coaches
  2. (figuratively) Much used; trite; mean.
    • hackney authors
    • his accumulative and hackney tonguea. 1685, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, The Ghost of the old House of Commons to the new one appointed to meet at Oxford.

Verb

hackney (third-person singular simple present hackneys, present participle hackneying, simple past and past participle hackneyed)

  1. (transitive) To make uninteresting or trite by frequent use.
  2. (transitive) To use as a hackney.
  3. (transitive) To carry in a hackney coach.
    • […] To her, who, frugal only that her thrift / May feed excesses she can ill afford, / Is hackneyed home unlackeyed; […]1785, William Cowper, The Task

Proper noun capitalized: Hackney

Hackney

  1. A London borough in Greater London, England, where once upon a time many horses were pastured.
  2. A town in eastern London, England, within this borough (OS grid ref TQ3584).
  3. An English habitational surname from Old English.
  4. One of several breeds of compact English horses: see hackney
  5. (in-compounds) (means of transportation): see hackney.

hackney meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hackney in Hindi

हैकनी, हैक्नी

hackney in Tamil

வாடகைக் குதிரை, வாடகை வண்டி

hackney in Marathi

हॅकनी, हॅकीनी, हॅकनीला

hackney in Urdu

کرائے کا, بھاڑے کا گھوڑا, کرائے کا ٹٹو
More languagesFewer languages
hackney in Bengali
হ্যাকনি, হ্যাকনির কাছে, হ্যাকনিকে
hackney in Telugu
హాక్నీ, హ్యాక్నీ, హాక్నీకి
hackney in Malayalam
സവാരിക്കുതിര, കൂലിക്കുതിരവണ്ടി, പണത്തിനുവേണ്ടി പ്രവർത്തിക്കുന്നയാൾ, കൂലികൊടുക്കപ്പെട്ട ആൾ
hackney in Kannada
ಹ್ಯಾಕ್ನಿ, ಹ್ಯಾಕ್ನೀ
hackney in Punjabi
ਹੈਕਨੀ, ਹੈਕੀਨੀ
hackney in Gujarati
હેકની, હેક્ની, હેકનીને
hackney in Odia
ହାକ୍ନି, ହାକ୍ନୀ
hackney in Nepali
ह्याकनी, ह्याक्नी, ह्याकनीलाई

Forms of hackney

Noun
pluralhackneys
Verb
third-person singular presenthackneys
present participlehackneying
past participlehackneyed
pasthackneyed

Plural of hackney: hackneys

Origin of hackney

From Middle English hakeney, from the placename Hackney (formerly a town; now a borough of London), used for grazing horses before sale, from Old English *Hacan īeġ (“Haca's Island”, literally “Hook's Island”). The Old French haquenée (“ambling mare for ladies”), Latinized in England to hakeneius, is originally from the English.

The senses "a horse" and "(a means of transport) available for hire" derive from the fact that many horses were kept for hire in the London borough of Hackney. The place name is from Old English *Hacan īeġ "Hacan's Isle" (or "Hook's Island"), referring to dry land in a marsh.

Words formed from hackney

Phrases with hackney

Words that rhyme with hackney

Questions about hackney

What does hackney mean?
Hackney means an ordinary horse.
What is hackney in Hindi?
Hackney in Hindi is हैकनी, हैक्नी. See Hackney meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hackney?
Hackney can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hackney?
Hackney is pronounced /ˈhækni/.
What is the plural of hackney?
The plural of hackney is hackneys.

Words near hackney in the dictionary

  1. Hackmanns
  2. Hackmans
  3. hackmatack
  4. hackmatacks
  5. hackmen
  6. hackney
  7. Hackney Bottom
  8. hackney cab
  9. hackney cabs
  10. hackney carriage
  11. hackney carriages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hackney (page history and authors); Hackney (page history and authors); hackney (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hackney (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hackney (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hackney (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hackney (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hackney.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hackney.wav.

Cite this entry: “hackney.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hackney. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.