crack v.1
1. in senses of speech or communication.
(a) to boast or brag; thus cracker, a braggart, cracking, boasting.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Reeve’s Tale (1979) line 147: He craketh boost, and swoor it was nat so. | |
| Towneley Mysteries ‘First Shepherds’ Play’ line 79–86: Both bosters and bragers [...] Gose to and fro For to crak. | |
| Chronicle Ded. viii: Ye Scottes will aye bee bostyng & crakyng [OED]. | |
| Bowge of Courte line 168: And, yf nede be, a bolde worde I dare cracke. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Eglogues Fiiii: When diet, excedeth temperaunce, Then followeth slouth [...] lechery, Blasphemyng, liying, crakyng, and periury. | |
| Colyn Cloute (1550) Aii: He cryeth and he creketh He pryeth and he peketh. | |
| Gentleness and Nobility line 201: Here ye may say, syrs, by Goddys passyon, Two proude folys make a crakkyng, And when it commyth to poynt, dare do no thyng . | |
| Hye way to the Spyttel House Di: Rufflers and masterles men that cannot werke / And slepeth by day, and walketh in the derke [...] Swerynge and crakynge an easy lyfe to lede. | |
| Ralph Roister Doister I i: All the day long he is facing and craking / Of his great acts in fighting and fray-making. | |
| ‘Placebo’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 169: Now to Sir John Baker, / He is not the greatest craker. | |
| Burnynge of Paules Church Di: They crake so proudly of the auncientye of their masse. | |
| Euphues (1916) 77: Though thou crack of thine own courage, thou mayest easily lose the conquest. | |
| Euphues and his England (1916) 270: Little do I esteem [...] those that crack of their love and have no modesty. | |
 | Trimming of Nashe E: So you may cracke your selfe abroad, and get to be reported the man you are not. | |
| Anatomy of Melancholy (1850) 186: Your very tradesmen, if they be excellent, will crack and brag, and show their folly in excess. | |
| ‘The Merry Country Maid’s Answer’ in Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 340: To this height and bigness he could crack and lie, / Yet our folks can witness he were scarce Hog-high. | |
| Witts Recreations ‘Fancies & Fantasticks’ No. 119: And let them that crack / In the praisies of Sack, / Know malt is of mickle might. | |
| Wits Paraphras’d 29: Let ’em all crack of Deeds and Wonders, / Of their high Birth, of Claps, and Thunders. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Irish Hudibras’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng in 18C Ireland (1998) 48: There’s ne’er a one / For us to crack of, when he’s gone. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cracking, Boasting, Vaporing. | |
| Drummer I i: Thou art always cracking and boasting. | |
| Upholsterer I i: Not much to crack of Mr. Brazen. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 329: Well may thy good old daddy crack; / Than his true-born he loves thee more, / Because thy mother was a whore. | |
| Young Coalman’s Courtship 5: Crack well o’ our wealth, and hide our poverty. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 90: [as cit. 1772]. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 167: He had great cause to crack of wealth. | |
| Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy 32: Jockey and his mither came hame together, chick for chew, cracking like two hand guns. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Clockmaker I 209: With all your crackin and boastin of your freedom, I guess, you wouldn’t sell a clock agin in that State. | |
| Clockmaker III 183: Proper proud of it he was too, a-boastin’ and a-crackin’ of it for everlastingly. | |
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 26 Dec. 3/4: Beresford has got a filly [...] he is cracking a deal about. | |
| Nature and Human Nature I 14: Is it to be wondered at [...] that I should crack and boast of them? | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 223/2: Oxford, and Francis, and Bean were a little better, but nothing to crack about. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Coburg Leader (Vic.) 28 Sept. 4/1: The Duke of Moreland is a great authority on gold mining. So he cracks. | |
| ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ From First to Last (1954) 69: Soupbone cracked that no ’bo could ride his division, and he made it good, too. | |
| Lonely Plough (1931) 39: He’ll crack for a week about it if happen he gets the chance. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 31 July 5/6: Cormac, as fiddler, cracks that he can play . |
(b) to talk; thus cracking, talking.
| ‘To the Reverend T— T— ’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 553: I could spen’ mony a cheerfu’ summer / To crack wi’ Virgil, Pope, an’ Homer. | |
| ‘Last Day of Hairst’ Poems in Scot. Dialect 150: I’ll come an’ get a pint an’ crack / Wi’ you about the matter. | |
| Cumberland Pacquet 12 Dec. 4/4: I sing the pitmen’s plagues and cares / Their pay-night o’er a foaming pot / All clean wash’d up, their way pursue / To drink and crack. | |
| ‘Wonderful Times’ in (1979) II 224: I would have you lock your ---gates, & never let them crack. | |
| Devizes & Wilts. Gaz. 26 Jan. 4/1: Weel, Ben, ye’re alive. I’m thinking; [...] we’ll crack of langsyne after the anchor is gone. | |
| Uncle Tom’s Cabin 6: A little humanity thrown in along goes a heap further than all your jawin’ and crackin’. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 36/2: Well, Joe, what about that ‘sugar’ you and the ‘moll’ were ‘cracking’ about when I was ‘ear-wigging’ in the passage? | |
| Maison De Shine 11: ‘Mis’ Pango’s crackin’ at your other husbing!’ cried little Minnie valiantly. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 92: Someone has been crackin about me an that anti-loafer law. | |
| Dear Ducks 264: We sat there crackin’ for five or ten minits. | |
| ‘Lonely Heart’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 490: Widow Crumb does not crack to him about her other husbands. | |
| Dead Ringer 117: I got it that I wasn’t to crack to Lee about what we really were going in town for. | |
| Rap Sheet 101: I just went my way and never cracked to nobody. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 85: He was a true disciple of the field, he never used a hammer, / or cracked it by the shield while stickin’ in the slammer. | |
| Thanatos 17: I don’t know why I’m cracking to you. | |
| Blow Your House Down 22: He’d never crack on what he earned. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 91: That’s a good one, O.G. Very fucking funny. Let’s see if you’re still cracking sideways when the cops got you all strained up. |
(c) to make a remark (to someone).
| Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 7/4: And we remember on one occasion, when some miscreant cracked this sorry wheeze, a gentleman, whom Melancholy had Marked for Her Own, said it was ‘almost good enough for Punch’. | |
| Sporting Times 4 Jan. 6: There they are cracking their chestnuts like one o’clock. | |
| Barkeep Stories 21: ‘[F]inally Muggins cracks dat he’d like t’ take a lesson or two from somebody dat knowed de game’. | |
| ‘In Vino Veritas’ Sporting Times 30 June 1/4: I cracked the old wheeze — late at biz. | |
| Truth (Perth) 4 Mar. 2/6: His ideas was Socialistic— / Tho’ whatever that may mean / I don’t know, but never cracks it, / Else I be considered green. | |
| Truth (Perth) 18 Feb. 8/6: She did crack that she was short, / Saying that the joss who run her, / Never slung it, as he ought. | |
| Gullible’s Travels 79: I wouldn’t tell you, only I know you’re not the village gossip and won’t crack it to anybody. | |
| Hobo 221: I leave an opening for a drunk or someone to ask me a question or crack a joke. | |
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 54: I crack back that any time I have to wait to see Mr Burdell I will commit hari-kiri with a tin-opener. | |
| These Are My People (1957) 54: ‘I like to hear you crack Bruiser,’ he told me in confidence. | |
| Junkie (1966) 28: I used to cruise around [...] waiting for one of those peasants to crack at me. | |
| Pimp 50: I would crack, ‘Oscar, my man, I like you.’. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 29: I cracked it was my birthday. | |
| Hooky Gear 207: Hes on a mega bubble, prattlin on about the future, crackin crap one-liners. |
(d) to praise, to promote.
| Bristol Magpie 15 Mar. 12/2: A play called The Dead Letter is thus ‘cracked’ [...] ‘No better advertised drama on earth, and it is by no means certain that it can be licked on any of the other planets’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 19 May 24/3: They crack Worboys to be better than I ever was [...]. At the same time my bit goes on the tried man. |
(e) to chatter.
| Maison De Shine 231: Don’t be crackin’ loud about bettin’. | |
| (con. 1919) Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 475: He got to cracking with one of the officers. |
(f) (US campus) to be very funny, to make people laugh.
| Sl. U. 63: Jope, that joke you told was hysterical. You totally crack! |
2. in the context of (sudden) noise and/or action.
(a) to break wind; thus cracking, breaking wind.
| [ | | The Frere and Boy (1836) lviii: When sche loked on her son Jake Weyteley her tayle spake And the weynd began to crake]. |
| Mercurius Democritus 9 Nov. 644: Here’s Siss that cannot hold her Water, / And Sue that cracks behinde with laughter. | |
| Witts Recreations Epitaph No. 23: A Farts Epitaph. Reader it was born, and cry’d, Crack’d so, smelt so, and so dy’d. | |
| Wits Paraphras’d 127: She blew thee out of her Posteriors, / Which made a Bouncing and a Rottle / [...] / A noise like that makes neighbouring nation / Take snuff in Nose and fall in passion / [...] / I would dispecne with all thy cracking. | |
| Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 33: [He] made Interest to be admitted into the Trumpeting Society, that he might manifest his Excellence among the cracking Performers. | |
| Bog-House and Glass-Window Misc. 40: Reader, I was born, and cry’d; / I crack’d, I smelt, and so I dy’d. | |
| Friar and Boy Pt I 9: I wish her bum might then let go, And crack like roaring thunder [...] And then a cracker she let fly, That almost shook the ground. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 417: How can you lie, you drowsy hound, / And snore, and crack, and sleep so sound. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 201: He, in less than half an hour, / began to crack, and snort, and snore. | |
| Bend for Home 44: He cracked in my face. A thick foggy smell of fart reached me. |
(b) to hit (with a loud noise), to slap; esp. in threat I’ll crack you one; thus cracking, hitting.
| Humours of a Coffee-House 19 Dec. 76: I’ll Crack your Crown as a Man woul’d crack a Nutshell. | |
| ‘If I Had A Donkey’ Dublin Comic Songster 317: If all had been like me, in fact, / There’d be no occasion for Martin’s hact, / Dumb creatures to prevent getting cracked on the head; / For if I had a donkey wot wouldn’t go I never would wollop him – no, no, no. | |
| in Schaaf Mr Dooley’s Chicago (1977) 45: The minute he poked his whiskers out of his office some crazy arnychist was liable to crack away at him with a gaspipe bomb. | |
| in N.Y. Journal 25 Oct. in Stallman (1966) 165: I jest cracked ’im under d’ ear [...] An it laid ’im flat out, too. | |
| Life In Sing Sing 247: Cracking. act of striking. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 20 Mar. 5/4: Spenny May says he will crack the one who puts his name in ‘Sport’ . | |
| ‘Gus Buys a Horse’ Me and Gus (1977) 18: If anyone had spoken to me like that I’d have cracked them. | |
| ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 285: I cracked him an easy one. | |
| Capt. Bulldog Drummond 55: Crack him over his nut, that may bring him to his senses. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Till Human Voices Wake Us 53: Mac was [...] doing nine months for [...] cracking a copper. | |
| Playback 71: You cracked me on the head with a whisky bottle. | |
| (con. 1944) Rats in New Guinea 112: If he wakes up I’ll crack him on the skull. | |
| Billy Rags [ebook] I’d cracked him easily, publicly, quickly. I was top. | |
| Glass Canoe (1982) 15: One came from nowhere, ripped a paling off the fence and cracked them both. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 31/1: crack to hit. | |
| Hot House 359: ‘I cracked her a good one,’ he explained, ‘because she had it coming’. | |
| Guardian 1 Apr. 6: She sobbed: ‘Sol’s just cracked me one.’. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. | |
| Charlie Opera 23: You wanna crack some broad in the mouth because she slapped you one in the face. |
(c) (also crack off) to let off a firearm; thus cracking, firing.
| Peregrine Pickle (1964) 137: As we are on shore, you and I must crack a pistol at one another. | |
| Leeds intelligencer 5 Jan. 7/4: Pistols were repeatedly fired off; and indeed Mr Stephens requested them to give over ‘cracking them’ [...] he wished them desist as the noise annoyaed him. | |
| Slaver’s Adventures 354: ‘I’ve just got his distance,’ said the mate. ‘Let me crack at him once more, and I’ll do better.’. | |
| Bucky O’Connor (1910) 220: I look to see a dramatic exit to the sound of cracking Winchesters. | |
| Let Tomorrow Come 228: These screws are all so chipper they would break out guns and make them crack after a running vic for the fun of it. | |
| letter 28 June Proud Highway (1997) 529: Now and then I crack off a 12-gauge blast at them. |
(d) (US) to shoot dead; thus cracking, shooting .
| Paddiana I 67: If ye came here airlier ye’d have grate cracking. Sure there’s a power of fowl, and a grate deal of hares. | |
| Wash. Post 21 Jan. 2/8: Cracked – Shot. | |
| (con. 1964–73) Bloods (1985) 21: I cracked him, because it just ran through my mind it would be either him or me. I just fired from the hip. | |
| Hitmen 250: ‘Ah, man, we can crack him a hundred times’. |
(e) see crack on v.1 (1)
In compounds
a general term of abuse, a blusterer; an empty gesture.
| Man in the Moon 23-30 Apr. 19: An act [...] a Parliament Crack-fart for disposing of Prizes before they have taken them. | |
| Crack upon Crack 1: That Dissembling Tool who Nick-names himself Trueman, though indeed the meerest Crack-fart in the World. | |
| ‘Battel without Bloodshed’ in Writings (1704) 123: Meer Crackfarts, who only go out to make Bounces. | |
| Humours of a Coffee-House 20 Aug. 7: I cannot, with Patience, hear a Finikin Little Crack-fart accuse Persons of Honour [...] with such Indecent Familiarities. |
In phrases
see under bell n.1
(Aus.) to betray a secret, to display one’s emotions.
| Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Sept. 4s/7: ‘Bring me some cigarettes,’ sez Loo, ‘An’ I won’t crack a boo’. | |
| Healesville Guardian (Vic.) 25 Feb. 2/2: ’Ere, Wayback, I’ll let you into the know, only don’t crack boo. It’s an airship. | |
| Songs of Sentimental Bloke gloss. 🌐 Crack a boo – To divulge a secret; to betray emotion. | |
| Wodonga & Towong Sentinel (Vic.) 29 Mar. 2/6: I want you not to crack a boo / But I’ve heard it’s their intention [etc.]. | |
| Mail (Adelaide) 17 Mar. 1s/1: ‘Well,’ he went on, when ev’rybody in th’ hall had yelled out they wouldn’t crack a boo. | |
| Argus (Melborune) 28 Aug. 8/1: Although the glamrous night-clubsinger was too dazed to ‘crack a boo,’ she’s ‘loved that guy from that moment on’. | |
| ‘Bluey Brink’ in Great Aus. Folk Songs 79: Bluey drank acid without cracking a boo, / Saying, ‘That’s the stuff, Jimmy! Strike me stone dead, / This’ll make me the ringer of Stevenson’s shed!’. |
see under fart n.
1. (orig. UK Und.; later use chiefly Aus.) to betray, to gossip about, to ‘spill the beans’.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 25/2: You mustn’t ‘crack a lay’ about this to any one. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 9 Dec. 7/3: That's forbidden. Mr. Norton, / Who’s a-goin to crack a lay? / Not them ancient devils, surely. | |
| Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 6/2: Never crack a lay on a sport? Not me! | |
| (con. 1840) Eve. Dispatch (London) 28 Aug. 4/3: Although recognised by his former companions they did not, to use their own slang term, ‘crack a lay,’ but looked around to find ways to gain money by means of [...] pugilistic knowledge. | |
| We Were the Rats 26: You won’t crack a lay about playin’ against the Royal, will ya? |
2. to speak, to ‘say the word’.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 127/2: I’ll ‘namase’ ryght off an’ ‘pal in’ wi’ Mary Ann Gallagher [...] I knoa shoo’ll ’ave me iv I neowt but ‘crack the lay’. | |
| Holy Smoke 65: They wasn’t game to crack a lay in front of the mob after that. |
(Aus.) to be upset.
| Lockie Leonard: Scumbuster (1995) 121: Why are you cracking a sad? | |
| ‘Big World’ in Turning (2005) 4: I want to be safe from the guilts – the old girl will crack a sad on me. |
(US) to attack verbally, to criticize.
| ‘Life on Broadway’ in McClures Mag. Aug. 194/2: ‘Vangie, even if you are my pal, I am not a-goin’ to set here an’ have her cracked at so crool’. |
1. (US) to work hard.
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 56: Crack Down. – To [...] work unusually hard. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 795: crack down – To place close attention to, or to work unusually hard. |
2. to repress, to take harsh measures against, esp. used of a campaign against vice or crime.
| ‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 202: Dad’s cracked down on him lately. Won’t give him money. | |
| ‘Pat Hobby’s Christmas Wish’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 30: We killed Taylor. We should have cracked down on him sooner. | |
| USA Confidential 215: The state obligingly cracked down with tough rules. | |
| Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 98: When it turns out wrong [...] the commissioner cracks down and the press gets on my ass. | |
| Big Easy 166: We’re cracking down on the kooks, queers, kinks, and Commies. | |
| Gonif 30: Warden White was growing apprehensive, feeling the latest buildup. ‘I’ve got to crack down, Red,’ he said. | |
| Sex Work (1988) 193: Hotels are often the prime movers in efforts to get police to ‘crack down’ on prostitutes. | |
| Guardian G2 21 June 9: Phillip II cracked down on the sizeable minority of Moriscos. | |
| Westsiders 256: The police have been trying to crack down on the Sunday-night cruise every summer for years now. |
3. (US) as imper., to stop talking.
| Nobody Stops Me 59: Now crack down, or I’ll knock the dust out of you. |
(Aus.) to grab and make off with something.
| Aus. Lang. |
1. to be cheeky, insolent.
| Alice in La-La Land (1999) 178: We’re not friends, wise guy. Don’t crack funny with me. |
2. to make jokes; to amuse.
| Conversation with the Mann 73: Just another kid who wanted to crack funny but couldn’t get stage time. |
(US black) conveying hard factual information in the guise of jokes and humour.
| ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1009: I’m cracking but I’m facking: I’m wisecracking, but I’m telling the truth. |
(Aus.) to sell racing tips.
| Kiss on the Lips n.p.: ‘Oh! I been crackin’ mugs, Missisabella.’ ‘Crackin’ mugs?’ ‘Hitchin’-on to mugs at the races, miss, and tippin’ winners at a bob a time.’. |
1. (US) to make jokes, to make ‘smart’ comments.
| Sophomore 24: Violet. Oh, you’re so funny. A lady can’t open her mouth without you crack off something smart. | |
| oral testimony cited in HDAS. | |
| Clockers 183: Who the fuck you crackin’ off to. |
2. see sense 2c above.
1. (US black) to break down in laughter.
| Hoops 98: ‘What we’re going to work on today,’ Cal said, ‘is Mr. Calvin Jones’s TIT.’ ‘It sounds better than Gatorade,’ Roy said, and everybody cracked on that. | |
| Won’t Know Till I Get There 153: Mom cracked up. I guess she had been hearing the lectures for so long she needed to crack on something. |
2. see sense 1f above .
3. see separate entries.
1. to boast, to brag.
| ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 26: crack one’s jaw. To boast. He’s just cracking his jaw, i.e., he’s boasting. | |
| et al. DAUL 51/2: Crack one’s jaw. (Perm, and environs; mid-West; near South) To talk boastfully; to bluster. | |
| , | | DAS. |
2. to speak.
| Really the Blues 97: I figured I’d be out of line if I cracked my jaw. | |
| Pimp 131: Don’t crack your jib unless I rap to you. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
(Aus.) to broach a subject.
| (con. 1959) Up the Cross 17: The Scholar cracked the tag and suggested to Whiffy Maloney that regular ablution was a plus. |
to abuse, to criticize.
| ‘The Rival Shows’ in Bulletin 14 Oct. 39/2: If you’ve come here thinkin’ to crack up my show say so straight out. | |
| Mojo and the Russians 76: [H]e started cracking up on me because of that stupid thing I said to Kitty. | |
| Sopranos 133: Like when she cracked up at Kay Clarke, the day. |
see separate entry.
(orig. US black) a general excl. of greeting.
| ‘Niggaz Don’t Want No Problem’ 🎵 I said, “What’s crackin’”. | |
| Da Bomb 🌐 30: What’s crackin?: Greeting; How are you doing? | |
| ‘Let’s Get High’ 🎵 Mel-Man what’s crackin? / Whassup wit all these ol’ punk ass hoes in here? | |
| Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 what’s crackin? See wassup? | |
| ‘I’m Raw’ 🎵 What’s poppin, what it do, what’s happenin, what’s crackin’, que pasa. | |
| ‘Wack But Good People’ 🎵 What’s crackin, homeboy? |