crack - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English crakken, craken, from Old English cracian (“to resound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crack, crackle, shriek”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to resound, cry hoarsely”).

Cognate with Scots crak (“to crack”), West Frisian kreakje (“to crack”), Dutch kraken (“to crunch, creak, squeak”), Low German kraken (“to crack”), German krachen (“to crash, crack, creak”), Lithuanian gi̇̀rgžděti (“to creak, squeak”), Old Armenian կարկաչ (karkačʻ), Sanskrit गर्जति (gárjati, “to roar, hum”).

Compare typologically English crevice (<< Latin crepō), Bulgarian пукнатина (puknatina) (akin to пу́кам (púkam)), Russian тре́щина (tréščina) (akin to треск (tresk)), щель (ščelʹ) (akin to щёлкать (ščólkatʹ)).

crack (third-person singular simple present cracks, present participle cracking, simple past and past participle cracked)

  1. (intransitive) To form cracks.
    It's been so dry, the ground is starting to crack.
  2. (intransitive) To break apart under force, stress, or pressure.
    When I tried to stand on the chair, it cracked.
  3. (intransitive) To become debilitated by psychological pressure.
    Anyone would crack after being hounded like that.
  4. (intransitive) To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture.
    When we showed him the pictures of the murder scene, he cracked.
  5. (intransitive) To make a cracking sound.
    The bat cracked with authority and the ball went for six.
  6. (intransitive, of a voice) To change rapidly in register.
    His voice cracked with emotion.
  7. (intransitive, of a person's voice during puberty) To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering.
    His voice finally cracked when he was fourteen.
  8. (intransitive) To make a sharply humorous comment.
    "I would too, with a face like that," she cracked.
  9. (intransitive, transgender slang) To realize that one is transgender.
    Synonym: one's egg cracks
    She cracked at age 22 and came out to her friends and family over the next few months.
  10. (transitive) To make a crack or cracks in.
    The ball cracked the window.
  11. (transitive) To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress.
  12. (transitive) To strike forcefully.
    She cracked him over the head with her handbag.
    I cracked myhead on a beam.
    Watch your head, don't crack it on that beam.
  1. (transitive) To open slightly.
    Could you please crack the window?
  2. (transitive, figurative) To cause to yield under interrogation or other pressure.
    They managed to crack him on the third day.
  3. (transitive, figurative) To solve a difficult problem.
    I've finally cracked it, and of course the answer is obvious in hindsight.
  1. (transitive) To overcome a security system or component.
    It took a minute to crack the lock, three minutes to crack the security system, and about twenty minutes to crack the safe.
    They finally cracked the code.
  2. (transitive) To cause to make a sharp sound.
    to crack a whip
  1. (transitive) To tell (a joke).
    The performance was fine until he cracked that dead baby joke.
  2. (transitive, chemistry) To break down (a complex molecule), especially with the application of heat: to pyrolyse.
    Acetone is cracked to ketene and methane at 700°C.
  3. (transitive, computing) To circumvent software restrictions such as regional coding or time limits.
    That software licence will expire tomorrow unless we can crack it.
  1. (transitive, informal) To open a canned beverage, or any packaged drink or food.
    I'd love to crack open a beer.
    Let's crack a tube and watch the game.
  1. (obsolete) To brag; to boast.
  1. (archaic, colloquial) To be ruined or impaired; to fail.
  1. (colloquial) To barely reach or attain (a measurement or extent).
    An underground band that never cracked the Hot 100
  1. (mid 2020s slang) To have sex with a female or feminine person for the first time, especially penetrative sex.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate, Thesaurus:copulate with
    Did you hear about Josh cracking Stacy in the school hall?

to form cracks

to break apart under pressure

to become debilitated by psychological pressure

to make a cracking sound

to make a crack or cracks in

to open slightly

to overcome a security system or a component

to cause to make a sharp sound

to break down, especially with the application of heat

to circumvent software restrictions

to be ruined or impaired; to fail

crack (countable and uncountable, plural cracks)

  1. A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
    Synonyms: crevice, fissure
    A large crack had formed in the roadway.
  2. A narrow opening.
    We managed to squeeze through a crack in the rock wall.
    Open the door a crack.
    • 2011 January 25, Phil McNulty, “Blackpool 2 - 3 Man Utd”, in BBC‎[3]:
      Dimitar Berbatov found the first cracks in the home side's resilience when he pulled one back from close range and Hernandez himself drew the visitors level with a composed finish three minutes later as Bloomfield Road's earlier jubilation turned to despair.
  3. A sharply humorous comment; a wisecrack.
    I didn't appreciate that crack about my hairstyle.
  4. (slang) Crack cocaine, a potent, relatively cheap, addictive variety of cocaine; often a rock, usually smoked through a crack-pipe.
    Synonyms: base, candy, crack rock, hard, rock, rocks, yay
    crack head
    • 1995, “Dear Mama”, in Me Against the World, performed by 2Pac:
      And even as a crack fiend, Mama / You always was a black queen, Mama
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 122:
      There were times when she could tell the Washingtons were overwhelmed by Jahlil's difficult ways, and one time Jessie even had the nerve to ask Carmiesha if she had smoked anything like crack or ice while she was pregnant with him.
    1. (figurative, humorous) Something good-tasting or habit-forming.
      kitty crack ― catnip
      • [2012** March 23, Rob Patronite, Robin Raisfeld, “Your Brain on Food”, in New York Magazine:
        When did naming foods after a powerful narcotic become a thing? […] Now the mean streets of New York are rife with “salted crack caramel” ice cream, “pistachio crack” brittle, “        crack** steak” sandwiches, and “tuna on crack.”]
  5. (onomatopoeia) The sharp sound made when solid material breaks.
    Synonyms: pop, snap; see also Thesaurus:snap, Thesaurus:bang
    The crack of the falling branch could be heard for miles.
  6. (onomatopoeia) Any sharp sound.
    The crack of the bat hitting the ball.
    • 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport‎[4]:
      She broke to love in the opening game, only for Bartoli to hit straight back in game two, which was interrupted by a huge crack of thunder that made Lisicki jump and prompted nervous laughter from the 15,000 spectators.
  7. A sharp, resounding blow.
    • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
      Mrs. Perkins, who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs. Piper in consequence for an unpleasantness originating in young Perkins' having "fetched" young Piper "a crack," renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious occasion.
  8. (informal) An attempt at something.
    I'd like to take a crack at that game.
  9. (vulgar, slang) The vagina.
    Synonyms: crevice, gash; see also Thesaurus:vagina
  10. (informal) The space between the buttocks.
    Synonyms: (UK) arse crack, (US) ass crack, (US) buttcrack, (UK) bum crack; see also Thesaurus:gluteal cleft
    Pull up your pants! Your crack is showing.
  11. (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Conviviality; fun; good conversation, chat, gossip, or humorous storytelling; good company.
    Synonyms: bonhomie, craic, jollity, joviality, laugh, warmth
    The party was great crack.
    He's good crack. [It's nice having him around]
  1. (Cumbria, Northern UK) A chat.
  1. (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Business; events; news.
    What's the crack?
    What's this crack about a possible merger?
  1. (computing) A program or procedure designed to circumvent restrictions or usage limits on software.
    Has anyone got a crack for DocumentWriter 3.0?
  2. (hydrodynamics, US, dated) An expanding circle of white water surrounding the site of a large explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress of the shock wave through the air above the water.

    A nuclear explosion in shallow water; the crack is clearly visible on the water's surface.
    Coordinate term: slick
  3. (Internet slang) Extremely silly, absurd or off-the-wall ideas or prose.
  4. The tone of voice when changed at puberty.
  1. (archaic) A mental flaw; a touch of craziness; partial insanity.
    He has a crack.
  2. (archaic) A crazy or crack-brained person.
    Synonym: crackpot
  1. (obsolete) A boast; boasting.
    Synonyms: brag, vaunt
  1. (obsolete) Breach of chastity.
  1. (obsolete) A boy, generally a pert, lively boy.
    Synonym: pistol
  1. (slang, dated, UK) A brief time; an instant; a jiffy.
    Synonyms: flash, moment, twink; see also Thesaurus:moment
    I'll be with you in a crack.
  2. (African-American Vernacular, dated) The act of hitting on someone.
  1. (obsolete, gypsy slang) Dry firewood.

thin space opened in a previously solid material

narrow opening

sharp sound made when solid material breaks

any sharp sound

attempt at something — see try

tone of voice when changed at puberty

mental flaw; a touch of craziness; partial insanity

crazy or crack-brained person

Slang first attested 1793, perhaps from the verb in the sense of doing something quickly or with intelligence, or in the sense of "speaking boastingly" and having something to be proud of.[1]

crack (not comparable)

  1. Highly trained and competent.
    Even a crack team of investigators would have trouble solving this case.
  2. Excellent, first-rate, superior, top-notch.
    • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 38, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
      Every scratch in the scheme was a gnarled oak in the forest of difficulty, and I went on cutting them down, one after another, with such vigour, that in three or four months I was in a condition to make an experiment on one of our crack speakers in the Commons.
    • 1962 April, J. N. Faulkner, “Summer Saturday at Waterloo”, in Modern Railways, page 264:
      Fortunately, it is unusual for the crack transatlantic liners to sail or dock on a Saturday, but it is the custom for most holiday cruises to start on that day, returning on Fridays a fortnight or three weeks later.

crack (plural cracks)

  1. (obsolete) One who excels; the best, especially a winning racehorse.
    • 1872, Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 21, page 314:
      Stanton had at one time a reputation for inaccessibility, but that has long since become a thing of the past, […] So that the gallops of the cracks' can, in most cases, be regularly watched and their daily doings truthfully chronicled.
    • 1888 [1637], James Shirley, Hyde Park, act IV, scene iii, page 236:
      1st Gent. What dost think, Jockey? / 2nd Gent. The crack o' the field's against you.
  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “crack”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Borrowed from English crack.

crack m (uncountable, no diminutive)

  1. crack (variety of cocaine)
    Hypernym: cocaïne

From English crack.

crack

  1. crack (variety of cocaine)

Borrowed from English crack.

crack m (plural cracks)

  1. (colloquial) champion, ace, expert
    Synonyms: champion, as
    C'est un crack en informatique. ― He/she is a computer whiz.
  2. (computing) crack (program or procedure designed to circumvent restrictions)

crack f (uncountable)

  1. crack cocaine

Unadapted borrowing from English crack (“crack cocaine, computer program”).

crack m (countable and uncountable, plural cracks)

  1. (uncountable) crack (crack cocaine)
  2. (countable, computing) crack (computer program for bypassing licenses and other restrictions)

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English craken (“to make a bursting sound; to speak”). Compare English crack, above.

crack (plural cracks)

  1. a moment, a short time, an instant
    • 1725, Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd, published 1852:
      Then fare ye well, Meg Dorts, and e'en's ye like,
      I careless cry'd, and lap in o'er the dike.
      I trow, when that she saw, within a crack,
      She came with a right thievless errand back;
      ‘Then farewell, Meg Dorts, just as you please,’ I carelessly cried, and lept over the wall. I swear, when she saw that, within an instant, She came back on a plainly pretextual errand;
  2. (archaic, usually plural) an instance of bragging, a boast
  3. gossip, a story, conversation
    • 1964, Robert Bonnar, Stewartie, page 97:
      Just have yer bit smoke an’ give us yer crack.
      Just smoke your pipe and tell us the news.
  4. a person who gossips; an entertaining storyteller
    • 1854, Margaret Oliphant Oliphant, Mathew Paxton, page 22:
      Here we've been for twae years without a priest, and our auld man preached far ower lang; he was a canny man, and a grand crack, but the folk wearied of him, for he had gotten that frail, puir body, that he forgot himsel, and preached the same things ower again
      We've been several years without a priest, and the old one preached much too long; he was a smart man, and a great storyteller, but the people grew tired of him, because he got so old, poor fellow, that he became forgetful and preached the same sermon over and over

Unadapted borrowing from English crack.

crack m (plural cracks)

  1. crack cocaine
  2. champion, ace, pro, wizard, dude (outstanding person)
    Eres un crack! ― You're the best!

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Borrowed from French krach, from German Krach.

crack m (plural cracks)

  1. misspelling of crac

Borrowed from English crack.

crack n or c

  1. (uncountable, colloquial) crack cocaine