Green’s Dictionary of Slang

someone or something notable, e.g. a fast pace, a dandy, a large sum of money (esp. a bet), an exceptional individual.

1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 193: The whispered words [...] ‘Stand a cracker on Sennacherib,’ are distinctly audible.
1861		G.J. Whyte-Melville Good for Nothing 47: What a cracker I stood to win on him and the Rejected! [Ibid.] 218: I lost a cracker backing Armstrong’s lot for the Derby.
1871		Daily News 8 Nov. ‘Prince of Wales’ Visit to Scarborough’ n.p.: The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a cracker, Lord Carrington finishing a good first [F&H].
1874		Sporting Times 3 Jan. 5/2: Jack [...] is very hard up. He has just lost a cracker on the ‘Grand National’.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 10: [of a ‘tall tale’] When Corker told a cracker which made everybody stare, / The Captain told a buster, which erected all your hair.
1884		H. Smart Post to Finish I 12: All along the far side [...] the dark-blue jacket leads the field a cracker.
1884		Sporting Times 1 Nov. 2/5: [of a large bet] Now, I’m not a steady backer, but at times I go a ‘cracker,’ / I pile it all on one and stand the chances.
1896		Mirror of Life 11 July 15/1: Vivian Nickell is rowing wonderfully well, but is likely to fall to pieces if the pace is set a cracker.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Aug. 13/2: The coroner, personally and protractedly, wrote out the depositions. [...] his pace was not a ‘cracker,’ and he had no objection to ‘wasting the time of the court.’.
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 70: cracker, n. A fine-looking, stylish, lively person. ‘She’s a cracker!’.
1936		C. Drew ‘The Hoodoo Tour’ in Bulletin 18 Nov. 38/4: Thump was to make the pace a cracker for the first two or three rounds.
1938		J.H. Warner ‘A Word List From Southeast Arkansas’ in AS XIII:1 4: ‘He’s the cracker on this team.’ That is, he is the player who inspires the team to do its best.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 15: He was a cracker, that padre [...] he was the only one who could handle my Maggie.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 33: You keep reckoning my idea’s a cracker, but you ain’t said yes or no, yet.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 87: Like the typewriter salesman Steve always said he would have been a cracker at.
1973		T. Lewis Billy Rags [ebook] ‘Twins. Little crackers they are’.
1976		J. Rosenthal Bar Mitzvah Boy Scene 18: Here. I’ve got this cracker for you. You’ll appreciate this one. There’s this Yiddishe feller —.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 122: Ah remember that cat scorin a cracker against Celtic.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 50: It was actually a cracker of a match.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 501: We gits intae the lift n up tae the room. It’s a cracker n aw.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] After jagging a role as tourist ambassador for West Oz, a friend in the department [...] organised a cracker of a trip for me to realise a dream.
2017		V. McDermid Insidious Intent (2018) 213: ‘Her weekend [...] must have been even more of a cracker than she’d hoped’.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘Not that I’m objectifying her, you understand, but she’s a right cracker’.