crack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹæk/
rhymes: -æk
homophone: craic
Forms: form: cracks
Etymology: 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 gi̇̀rgžděti (“to creak, squeak”), Old Armenian կարկաչ (karkačʻ), Sanskrit गर्जति (gárjati, “to roar, hum”).
Compare typologically English crevice derived from Latin crepō, Bulgarian пукнатина (puknatina) akin to пу́кам (púkam), Russian тре́щина (tréščina) akin to треск (tresk), щель (ščelʹ) akin to щёлкать (ščólkatʹ).
Senses: examples: text: A large crack had formed in the roadway.
synonyms: crevice
fissure
glosses: A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
examples: text: We managed to squeeze through a crack in the rock wall.
text: Open the door a crack.
text: 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.
ref: 2011 January 25, Phil McNulty, “Blackpool 2 - 3 Man Utd”, in BBC:
glosses: A narrow opening.
examples: text: I didn't appreciate that crack about my hairstyle.
glosses: A sharply humorous comment; a wisecrack.
examples: text: crack head
text: And even as a crack fiend, Mama / You always was a black queen, Mama
ref: 1995, “Dear Mama”, in Me Against the World, performed by 2Pac:
text: 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.
ref: 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 122:
synonyms: crack rock
hard
glosses: Crack cocaine, a potent, relatively cheap, addictive variety of cocaine; often a rock, usually smoked through a crack-pipe.
examples: text: kitty crack
translation: catnip
english: catnip
text: When did naming foods after a powerful narcotic become a thing?[…]Now the mean streets of New York are rife with “salted crack caramel” ice cream, “pistachio crack” brittle, “crack steak” sandwiches, and “tuna on crack.”
ref: [2012 March 23, Rob Patronite, Robin Raisfeld, “Your Brain on Food”, in New York Magazine:
synonyms: crack rock
hard
glosses: Crack cocaine, a potent, relatively cheap, addictive variety of cocaine; often a rock, usually smoked through a crack-pipe.
Something good-tasting or habit-forming.
examples: text: The crack of the falling branch could be heard for miles.
synonyms: word: pop
word: snap
word: clack
word: click
word: clunk
word: crack
word: snap
word: pop
word: bang
word: blam
word: boom
word: boom-boom
word: clap
word: crack
word: kaboom
word: kerboom
word: pow
word: report
glosses: The sharp sound made when solid material breaks.
examples: text: The crack of the bat hitting the ball.
text: She broke to love in the opening game, only for Bartoli to hit straight back in game two, which was interrupted by a huge crack of thunder that made Lisicki jump and prompted nervous laughter from the 15,000 spectators.
ref: 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: Any sharp sound.
examples: text: Mrs. Perkins, who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs. Piper in consequence for an unpleasantness originating in young Perkins' having "fetched" young Piper "a crack," renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious occasion.
ref: 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
glosses: A sharp, resounding blow.
examples: text: I'd like to take a crack at that game.
glosses: An attempt at something.
examples: text: I rattled off more silly nonsense, all the while clutching her firmly, pushing my fingers into her gluey crack.
ref: 1956, Henry Miller, Quiet Days in Clichy, Grove Press, published 1987, →ISBN, page 143:
synonyms: word: crevice
word: gash
word: axe wound
word: bearded clam
word: beaver
word: berk
word: bonne bouche
word: box
word: bun
word: bush
word: cavern
word: clunge
word: coin slot
word: cooch
word: coochie
word: cookie
word: cooter
word: cooze
word: crack
word: crevice
word: cunny
word: cunt
word: fanny
word: fish lips
word: foo-foo
word: front bottom
word: front bum
word: front hole
word: gash
word: ginch
word: girl
word: Grand Canyon
word: honeypot
word: hoo-ha
word: innie
word: juice box
word: kebab
word: kitty
word: la-la
word: love box
word: love tunnel
word: minge
word: minnie
word: monosyllable
word: moocha
word: muff
word: muffin
word: nonny
word: pee-pee
word: penis fly trap
word: pink
word: pink bits
word: poontang
word: pump
word: punani
word: pussy
word: quim
word: sausage wallet
word: sheath
word: slit
word: snapper
word: snatch
word: squish mitten
word: stench trench
word: strange
word: sugar walls
word: tuppence
word: trap
word: twat
word: twinkle
word: vadge
word: vag
word: vagina
word: vaginer
word: va-jay-jay
word: vertical smile
word: Virginia
word: vulva
word: wee-wee
word: whisker biscuit
word: wizard's sleeve
glosses: The vagina.
examples: text: Pull up your pants! Your crack is showing.
synonyms: word: arse crack
word: ass crack
word: buttcrack
word: bum crack
word: anal cleft
word: ass crack
word: buttcrack
word: crack
word: gluteal cleft
word: intergluteal cleft
word: natal cleft
glosses: The space between the buttocks.
examples: text: The party was great crack.
text: He's good crack. [It's nice having him around]
text: But first I maun hae a crack wi' an auld acquaintance here.—Mr. Owen, Mr. Owen, how's a' wi' ye, man?
ref: 1817, Walter Scott, chapter 5, in Rob Roy, volume 2, Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Company, published 1818, page 193:
text: He seed 'em bawth as he coom'd frae t' Nab, / Nobbut aaf an hooer agone: / An' he stopp'd, did Jan, for a bit of a crack, / For t' gells was lahk aloan.
ref: 1865, Arthur Munby, “T' Moossel Getherers”, in Verses New and Old, London: Bell and Daldy, page 54:
text: Being a native of Northumberland, she was enjoying their banter and Geordie good humour. This was what she needed — good company and good crack.
ref: 2001, William F. Gray, The Villain, iUniverse, page 214:
text: "his a bit o' good crack — interesting to talk to"
ref: 2004, Bill Griffiths, Dictionary of North East Dialect, Northumbria University Press (quoting Dunn, 1950)
text: By the time we've got a good drunk on us there'll be more crack in this valley than the night I pissed on the electric fence!
ref: 2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury, published 2007, page 10:
synonyms: bonhomie
craic
jollity
joviality
laugh
warmth
glosses: Conviviality; fun; good conversation, chat, gossip, or humorous storytelling; good company.
examples: text: What's the crack?
text: What's this crack about a possible merger?
text: But, aw see yo known him weel enough; an' so aw'll tell yo a bit of a crack abeawt him an' Owd Neddy.
ref: 1869, Edwin Waugh, “Ramble from Bury to Rochdale”, in Lancashire Sketches, 3rd edition, London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.:
glosses: Business; events; news.
examples: text: Has anyone got a crack for DocumentWriter 3.0?
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A program or procedure designed to circumvent restrictions or usage limits on software.
topics: geography
hydrodynamics
hydrology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
coordinate_terms: slick
glosses: An expanding circle of white water surrounding the site of a large explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress of the shock wave through the air above the water.
qualifier: elsewhere throughout the North of the UK
glosses: a chat. 1936, Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post, ch 3. « And when he come down in the evenings, he’d drop in every night to have a crack wi’ Old Bob. »
glosses: Extremely silly, absurd or off-the-wall ideas or prose.
examples: text: And let vs (Polidore) though now our voyces / Haue got the manniſh cracke, ſing him to'th'ground
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 389, column 2:
glosses: The tone of voice when changed at puberty.
examples: text: He has a crack.
glosses: A mental flaw; a touch of craziness; partial insanity.
examples: text: On the London Cries […] I have lately received a letter from some very odd fellow upon this subject […] ‘Sir, […], but I cannot get the parliament to listen to me ; who look upon me, forsooth, as a crack and a projector […] I am, SIR, &c. / RALPH CROTCHET’
ref: 1711 December 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, December 18, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 251; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, pages 251-256:
synonyms: crackpot
glosses: A crazy or crack-brained person.
examples: text: Slaunderous reproches,and fowle infamies, / Leaſings,backbytings,and vaineglorious crakes
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10, page 350:
text: D'ye hear wha's coming to cow yere cracks?
ref: 1814, Walter Scott, chapter 30, in Waverley, volume 1, Boston: Samuel H. Parker, published 1828, page 224:
synonyms: brag
vaunt
glosses: A boast; boasting.
examples: text: But thinke her bond of Chaſtity quite crack'd, I hauing 'tane the forfeyt.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 396:
glosses: Breach of chastity.
examples: text: The ſame Sir Iohn, the very ſame: I ſaw him breake Scogaan's Head at the Court-Gate, when hee was a Crack, not thus high: […]
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 86, column 2:
text: Indeed la, tis a noble childe. / - A Cracke Madam.
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 4, column 2:
synonyms: pistol
glosses: A boy, generally a pert, lively boy.
examples: text: I'll be with you in a crack.
synonyms: word: flash
word: moment
word: twink
word: bat of an eye
word: bit
word: blink of an eye
word: crack
word: eyeblink
word: flash
word: glimpse
word: half a mo
word: instant
word: jiff
word: jiffy
word: jot
word: minute
word: mo
word: moment
word: New York minute
word: New York second
word: no time
word: sec
word: second
word: span
word: split-second
word: spurt
word: stound
word: tick
word: trice
word: twink
word: twinkle
word: twinkling
word: while
glosses: A brief time; an instant; a jiffy.
examples: text: The eyes of my sisters who fear my crack^*
[footnote] Before the popularization of the term "crack" as a drug, its common usage in the Black community referred to men publicly cruising and approaching women.
ref: 1987 February 1, Joseph Beam, “Creating Myself from Scratch: Living as a Black Gay Man in the 1980s”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 28, page 5:
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: The act of hitting on someone.
qualifier: gypsy slang
glosses: Dry firewood.
Derived terms: ab crack
anticrack
arse crack
arse-crack
ass crack
ass crack of dawn
bum crack
bumcrack
butt crack
butt crack of dawn
crack-a-jack
crack baby
crackberry
crackbrain
crackbrained
crackfic
crack fic
Crackgate
crack hand
crack head
crackhead
crack-hemp
crackhouse
crack house
crackie
crack kills
crackless
cracklet
cracklike
crack-loo
crackmeter
crack of dawn
crack of doom
crack out
crack pairing
crackpipe
crack pipe
crackpot
crackproof
crack rock
crack-rope
crack seed
crackship
cracksman
crack snacker
crack team
cracktro
crack whore
crack willow
crack wise
cracky
creamy crack
crickety-crack
EverCrack
fair crack of the whip
fall between the cracks
have a crack at
hippy crack
hydrocrack
kitty crack
like crack
macrocrack
microcrack
mudcrack
nutcrack
plastic crack
plumber's crack
quarter crack
sand crack
steam-crack
suncrack
take a crack at
thundercrack
tocrack
voice crack
Warcrack
what's the crack
whipcrack
wiki crack
wisecrack