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hackwork

American  
[hak-wurk] / ˈhækˌwɜrk /

noun

  1. writing, painting, or any professional work done for hire and usually following a formula rather than being motivated by any creative impulse.


hackwork British  
/ ˈhækˌwɜːk /

noun

  1. undistinguished literary work produced to order

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of hackwork

First recorded in 1850–55; hack 2 + work


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Onah, rebounding nicely from the B-movie hackwork of last year’s “The Cloverfield Paradox,” neither embraces nor disguises the material’s stage foundations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2019

Ma isn’t a bad movie, and it’s sure as hell not trying to be a good one, but it scratches a particular itch that neither noble failures nor cranked-out hackwork can touch.

From Slate ● May 29, 2019

This is largely how today’s culture has chosen to remember Welles: as a pompous wreck, a man who peaked early and then devolved into hackwork and bloated fiascos.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 7, 2015

The Pat Hobby stories lack Fitzgerald’s characteristic lyricism, and perhaps for that might be read as mercenary or hackwork; but what they lack in beauty, they make up for in wit and pathos.

From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2013

Nor, though we may regard the tasks as hackwork now, were they so regarded by Milton.

From The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649 by David Masson

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