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Crack   /kræk/   Listen
noun
Crack  n.  
1.
A partial separation of parts, with or without a perceptible opening; a chink or fissure; a narrow breach; a crevice; as, a crack in timber, or in a wall, or in glass.
2.
Rupture; flaw; breach, in a moral sense. "My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw."
3.
A sharp, sudden sound or report; the sound of anything suddenly burst or broken; as, the crack of a falling house; the crack of thunder; the crack of a whip. "Will the stretch out to the crack of doom?"
4.
The tone of voice when changed at puberty. "Though now our voices Have got the mannish crack."
5.
Mental flaw; a touch of craziness; partial insanity; as, he has a crack.
6.
A crazy or crack-brained person. (Obs.) "I... can not get the Parliament to listen to me, who look upon me as a crack and a projector."
7.
A boast; boasting. (Obs.) "Crack and brags." "Vainglorius cracks."
8.
Breach of chastity. (Obs.)
9.
A boy, generally a pert, lively boy. (Obs.) "Val. 'T is a noble child. Vir. A crack, madam."
10.
A brief time; an instant; as, to be with one in a crack. (Eng. & Scot. Colloq.)
11.
Free conversation; friendly chat. (Scot.) "What is crack in English?... A crack is... a chat with a good, kindly human heart in it."
12.
A witty remark; a wisecrack.
13.
A chance or opportunity to do something; an attempt; as, I'll take a crack at it.
14.
A form of cocaine, highly purified and prepared as small pellets, especially suitable for smoking; also called rock. Used in this form it appears to be more addicting than cocaine powder. (slang)


verb
Crack  v. t.  (past & past part. cracked; pres. part. cracking)  
1.
To break or burst, with or without entire separation of the parts; as, to crack glass; to crack nuts.
2.
To rend with grief or pain; to affect deeply with sorrow; hence, to disorder; to distract; to craze. "O, madam, my old heart is cracked." "He thought none poets till their brains were cracked."
3.
To cause to sound suddenly and sharply; to snap; as, to crack a whip.
4.
To utter smartly and sententiously; as, to crack a joke.
5.
To cry up; to extol; followed by up. (Low)
To crack a bottle, to open the bottle and drink its contents.
To crack a crib, to commit burglary. (Slang)
To crack on, to put on; as, to crack on more sail, or more steam. (Colloq.)


Crack  v. i.  
1.
To burst or open in chinks; to break, with or without quite separating into parts. "By misfortune it cracked in the coling." "The mirror cracked from side to side."
2.
To be ruined or impaired; to fail. (Collog.) "The credit... of exchequers cracks, when little comes in and much goes out."
3.
To utter a loud or sharp, sudden sound. "As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack."
4.
To utter vain, pompous words; to brag; to boast; with of. (Archaic.) "Ethoipes of their sweet complexion crack."


adjective
Crack  adj.  Of superior excellence; having qualities to be boasted of; as, a crack shot. (Colloq.) "One of our crack speakers in the Commons."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Crack" Quotes from Famous Books



... protecting the back, it would bend when the book was opened and allow the back to "throw up" (see fig. 1, A). When gold tooling became common, and the backs of books were elaborately decorated, it was found that the creasing of the leather injured the brightness or the gold and caused it to crack. To avoid this the binders lined up the back until it was as stiff as a block of wood. The back would then not "throw up" as the book was opened, the leather would not be creased, and the gold would remain uninjured (see fig. ...
— Bookbinding, and the Care of Books - A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians • Douglas Cockerell
... I'm so light (oh, the thought makes me shiver), Crack! Bang! And from shore unto shore The water jumped out; I was half in the river, And don't mean to slide ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various
... made to work," scoffed Teddy. "He's made to sit on the box and crack the whip, while we common trash pull and ...
— The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove - Or, The Missing Chest of Gold • Spencer Davenport
... blotting-paper, and the smell that had been only faintly in the air before was now heavy around them, blown in thick gusts as the wind moved through the trees. Shrapnel now could be distinctly heard at no great distance, with its hiss, its snap of sound, and sometimes rifle-shots like the crack of a ball on a cricket bat broke through the thickets. They separated, spreading like beaters in a long line: "Soon," Trenchard told me, "I was quite alone. I could hear sometimes the breaking of a twig or a stumbling footfall but I might have been alone at ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole
... Soviet Union has surrounded itself with captive and sullen nations. Like a crack in the crust of an uneasily sleeping volcano, the Hungarian uprising revealed the depth and intensity of the patriotic longing for liberty that still ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various


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