crack

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /kɹæk/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: craic

Etymology 1

From Middle English crakken, craken, from Old English cracian (“to resound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną (“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 gìrgžděti (“to creak, squeak”), Old Armenian կարկաչ (karkačʻ), Sanskrit गर्जति (gárjati, “to roar, hum”).

Verb

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

2. (intransitive) To form cracks.

   It's been so dry, the ground is starting to crack.

3. (intransitive) To break apart under force, stress, or pressure.

   When I tried to stand on the chair, it cracked.

4. (intransitive) To become debilitated by psychological pressure.

   Anyone would crack after being hounded like that.

5. (intransitive) To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture.

   When we showed him the pictures of the murder scene, he cracked.

6. (intransitive) To make a cracking sound.

   The bat cracked with authority and the ball went for six.

7. (intransitive, of a voice) To change rapidly in register.

   His voice cracked with emotion.

8. (intransitive, of a pubescent boy's voice) To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering.

   His voice finally cracked when he was fourteen.

9. (intransitive) To make a sharply humorous comment.

   "I would too, with a face like that," she cracked.

10. (intransitive, LGBT, slang) To realize that one is transgender.

    She cracked at age 22 and came out to her friends and family over the next few months.

11. (transitive) To make a crack or cracks in.

    The ball cracked the window.

12. (transitive) To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress.

    You'll need a hammer to crack a black walnut.

13. (transitive) To strike forcefully.

    She cracked him over the head with her handbag.

    • 1914 June 10, “Pillow Fight In Australian Parliament”, in Independence Daily Reporter:

      Bedding provided for late session became ammunition—meet ended in riot when Labor man cracked leader on jaw.

14. (transitive) To open slightly.

    Could you please crack the window?

15. (transitive, figurative) To cause to yield under interrogation or other pressure.

    They managed to crack him on the third day.

16. (transitive, figurative) To solve a difficult problem.

    I've finally cracked it, and of course the answer is obvious in hindsight.

    • 2021 November 17, Conrad Landin, “Network News: Vivarail goes forth with fast-charging batteries”, in RAIL, number 944, page 13:

      "[...] The key to battery trains is more the ability to charge quickly. If you can do that, you've cracked it."

17. (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.

18. (transitive) To cause to make a sharp sound.

    to crack a whip

    • 2001, Doug McGuinn, The Apple Indians:

      Hershell cracked his knuckles, a nervous habit that drove Inez crazy […]

19. (transitive) To tell (a joke).

    The performance was fine until he cracked that dead baby joke.

20. (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.

21. (transitive, computing) To circumvent software restrictions such as regional coding or time limits.

    That software licence will expire tomorrow unless we can crack it.

    • 1997 April 1, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired‎, →ISSN:

      Nobody really knows how much actual damage cracking does to the software companies. But as the industry rolls apprehensively toward the uncertain future of an ever-more frictionless electronic marketplace, almost everyone thinks piracy will increase.

22. (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.

    • 1894, The Strand, volume 8, page 569:

      Old Bouvet was waiting in the passage when I entered, and he asked me whether we might not crack a bottle of wine together.

23. (obsolete) To brag; to boast.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 16, page 216:

      To whom the boaſter, that all knights did blot, / With proud diſdaine did ſcornefull anſwere make; […] And further did vncomely ſpeaches crake.

    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 134, column 2, line 268:

      And Æthiopes of their ſweet complexion crack.

    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cauſes of Melancholy. Vaine-glory, Pride, Ioy, Praiſe, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 3, subsection 14, page 126:

      Stultitiam ſuam produnt &c. (ſaith Platerus) your very tradeſmen, if they be excellent, will crack and bragge, and ſhew their folly in exceſſe.

    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cure of Melancholy. Simple alternatives. Compound Alternatiues, Cenſure of Compounds and mixt Phyſick.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection v:

      Cardan cracks that he can cure all diſeaſes with water alone, as Hippocrates of old did moſt infirmities with one medicine.

24. (archaic, colloquial) To be ruined or impaired; to fail.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Dedications”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

      The credit […] of exchequers cracks, when little comes in and much goes out.

25. (colloquial) To barely reach or attain (a measurement or extent).

    An underground band that never cracked the Hot 100

    • 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 102:

      IQ (Intelligence Quotient), number said to measure an individual's intelligence that many experts who clearly didn't crack 125 say overlooks important attributes such as creativity and social skills.

Derived terms

Related terms

• crazed (exhibiting fine-line cracks)

Translations

See also

• hack

Noun

crack (countable and uncountable, plural cracks)

2. A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.

   A large crack had formed in the roadway.

3. 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:

     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.

4. A sharply humorous comment; a wisecrack.

   I didn't appreciate that crack about my hairstyle.

6. (slang) Crack cocaine, a potent, relatively cheap, addictive variety of cocaine; often a rock, usually smoked through a crack-pipe.

   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 , 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