Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also crack-up) excellent, first-class.

1799		Sporting Mag. July XIV 222/1: A Colonel [...] In style gave a feed to his crack volunteers.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 141: Jerry [...] remarked to Tom, what a crack pack of hounds Sir Harry’s were.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 58: The most crack blowen in London would have given her ears at any time for a loving word from Bachelor Bill.
1847		Thackeray Punch’s Prize Novelists: Phil Fogarty in Burlesques (1903) 206: The title of Count, the command of a crack cavalry regiment, the 14me Cheveaux Marins, were the bribes that were actually offered to me.
1847		Manchester Times 24 Apr. 4/3: Mr Macaulay made the ‘crack’ speech of the debate.
1850		Manchester Spy (NH) 5 Oct. n.p.: This was formerly the ‘crack’ company of the state.
1852		Kendal Mercury 24 Jan. 6/1: Several inland towns [...] have been honoured by a visit from two ‘crack professors of the dodge’ in question.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 31: This is the crack set-to of the day.
1867		‘Under the Earth’ in Dick’s Standard Plays (1871) I i: Enjoyed crack society – devilish high society [...] The very tip-top of fashion.
1871		C. Money Knocking About in N.Z. 135: Strictness in these matters may be necessary enough in a showy body of men, such as mounted police or a crack regiment in Her Majesty’s service.
1876		H.E. Malet Annals of the Road 154: [T]he crack post coaches of bygone days.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Mar. 2/1: Some three years ago he easily defeated Jim Dutton, one of the ‘crackest’ runners in that athletic establishment, the Government printing office.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Mar. 7/1: Hon. James White’s crack two-year-old Titan has been withdrawn from the Doncaster Handicap.
1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 54: Once in a while some crack crew gives us a spin.
1900		J. Conrad Lord Jim 36: Some of you must have heard of Big Brierly – the captain of the crack ship of the Blue Star line.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 2/6: Burns has inevitably to be satisfied with a short price about his ‘crack cart horse’.
1910		Magnet 3 Sept. 8: A fellow cannot expect to become a really crack bowler at the first attempt.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 192: Her men were nothing to boast of on the average; no more were the officers, even in crack corps like the Guards and the Brandenburgers.
1920		E. O’Neill Beyond the Horizon II ii: I’ll come back and settle down and turn this farm to the crackiest place in the whole state.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 259: It takes men and it takes dogs – crack dogs!
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 39: That’s what the crack English riders will tell him.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 137: The Chief, the crack train on the Santa Fe.
1950		J.T. Farrell ‘The Fastest Runner’ in Amer. Dream Girl (1950) 16: Kid, you run de fastest, I fight de best in de whole school. We make a crack-up team.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 33: Pinkerton had put his crack detectives on the trail.
1953		Yorks. Post & Leeds Intelligencer 6 May 6/4: The public in Australia will keenly follow the performances of our crack left-hand batsmen Neil Harvey and Len Hutton.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 87: Not even our crack newspaper raconteurs could uncork gaudier, merrier tales than these villains.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 15: Him being a crack Reporter just ask him!
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 36: The line from Rome to Trento will be guarded by the crack ‘Death’s Head Asparagus’ division of the Italian Army.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 166: Shiner found himself wondering, with a twinge of shame, whether the White Clarion Aryans had a snowball’s chance against crack NATO troops.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 5: Developed by the crack team over at United Artists.
2015		L. Berney Long & Faraway Gone [ebook] [H]is crack squad of lazy, lax, and disrespectful teenage doormen and concession girls.

2. the best.

1826		N.-Y. National Advocate 24 May 2/2: Long Island Races. — Yesterday a famous race was run between Piper and Jeanette. This was the crack match of the present races.
1839		F.J. Grund Aristocracy in America II i 4: [T]he Tremont House [...] is a large, massive building [...] situated in the most eligible part of the city, and considered as the crack house of the place.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 157: We held the reputation, crack scrub-dashers on the station.

3. (US) the most popular.

1839

F.J. Grund Aristocracy in America II vi 138: It is the misfortune of our people [. . .] that they cram everything under the head of morality. Morality is the cant and crack word of the place.