Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to boast or praise; often as crack someone up v., to eulogize; thus cracked up adj., lauded; also as n. crack-up, praise, positive criticism.

1835		D.P. Thompson Adventures of Timothy Peacock 111: [You might make the bear] pass for what you cracked him up to be.
1844		New Sprees of London 13: Three nights in the week there is a splendid exhibition, called the ‘Feast of the Lanterns,’ which has justly been highly cracked up.
1849		E.N. Tailer Diary, Nov. 1848–Feb. 18, 1849 11 Jan. n.p.: We stopped at Wild’s confectionary, and purchased some of his cracked up candies.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 109: Then don’t object to me cracking up the old School-house, Rugby.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 8: There was this Lucky Middlesex putting the lush into him in style, and the coves about all cracking him up for a ripper.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly II 80: That young lady discovers that she is not likely to be cracked up as a vocaller.
1880		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 18 Sept. 6/1: Once let the former discover that writer is reliable, and that he doesn't crack up trashy pieces or ‘butter’ incapable performers, and they will read and be guided by his criticisms.
1882		Taunton Courier 1 Mar. 13/1: [P]lenty who are drawn to the theatre by an unwarranted ‘crack up,’ go away disgusted, and keep away.
1886		Sporting Times 6 Feb. 1/3: ‘I can’t see why you crack that woman up [...] she is not pretty, she can’t sing and she can’t dance’.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 227: Then she’d crack up Jeanie, and say how true and constant she’d been, and how she was rewarded for it by marrying the only man she’d ever loved.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 9/2: Both writers crack up to the skies George Eliot’s ‘Daniel Deronda.’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 28 Oct. 1/4: I fear our country, fair and young, / Is ‘not what it’s cracked-up to be’.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 88: Every guy cracks up his own wheel, and says all the others is made out o’ sheet iron and bum castin’s.
1896		Sporting Gaz. (London) 16 May 628/3: During the season he was frequntly pretty well ‘slanged’ himself and it was a pleasant experience to be ‘cracked up to the skies’.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Jul. 12/2: Grovel comes home to roost like this sometimes. Victorian loyalists, after cracking ‘Uncle Tom’ up to the highest, were asked [...] to take him at their own valuation.
1904		G.B. Shaw John Bull’s Other Island IV ii: While you slave like bees for it [...] and to crack up your own Irish heroism.
1915		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 22 Jan. 6/7: ‘What do these fool novel writers mean by saying of the heroine that subtle perfume of her breath brushed the hero’s cheek?’ ‘I guess it’s cracking up the sweeping success of the brand of chewing gum she used.’.
1923		W. Holtby Anderby Wold (1981) 199: Eli was cracking up yon Mr. Rossiter [...] saying what a good speaker ’e was an’ all.
1936		G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 145: Well, this cat met a fox in the forest, and she’d always heard the fox cracked up for being wise.
1945		J. Henderson Gunner Inglorious (1974) 138: I hope for a moment our bombsights are all they’re cracked up to be.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 51: I suppose the Marines are all they’re cracked up to be.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 27: Did you see that article cracking up their team?
2000		Sun. Times News Rev. 12 Mar. 1: It was cracked up to be menacing and that I’d been brave.