crack
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹæk/
rhymes: -æk
homophone: craic
Forms: form: cracks
form: cracking
form: cracked
form: cracked
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: It's been so dry, the ground is starting to crack.
glosses: To form cracks.
examples: text: When I tried to stand on the chair, it cracked.
glosses: To break apart under force, stress, or pressure.
examples: text: Anyone would crack after being hounded like that.
glosses: To become debilitated by psychological pressure.
examples: text: When we showed him the pictures of the murder scene, he cracked.
glosses: To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture.
examples: text: The bat cracked with authority and the ball went for six.
glosses: To make a cracking sound.
examples: text: His voice cracked with emotion.
glosses: To change rapidly in register.
raw_tags: of a voice
examples: text: His voice finally cracked when he was fourteen.
glosses: To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering.
raw_tags: of a pubescent boy's voice
examples: text: "I would too, with a face like that," she cracked.
glosses: To make a sharply humorous comment.
examples: text: She cracked at age 22 and came out to her friends and family over the next few months.
qualifier: transgender slang
glosses: To realize that one is transgender.
examples: text: The ball cracked the window.
glosses: To make a crack or cracks in.
examples: text: You'll need a hammer to crack a black walnut.
glosses: To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress.
examples: text: She cracked him over the head with her handbag.
text: Watch your head, don't crack it on that beam.
text: Bedding provided for late session became ammunition—meet ended in riot when Labor man cracked leader on jaw.
ref: 1914 June 10, “Pillow Fight In Australian Parliament”, in Independence Daily Reporter:
glosses: To strike forcefully.
examples: text: Could you please crack the window?
glosses: To open slightly.
examples: text: They managed to crack him on the third day.
glosses: To cause to yield under interrogation or other pressure.
examples: text: I've finally cracked it, and of course the answer is obvious in hindsight.
text: "[...] The key to battery trains is more the ability to charge quickly. If you can do that, you've cracked it."
ref: 2021 November 17, Conrad Landin, “Network News: Vivarail goes forth with fast-charging batteries”, in RAIL, number 944, page 13:
glosses: To solve a difficult problem.
examples: text: It took a minute to crack the lock, three minutes to crack the security system, and about twenty minutes to crack the safe.
text: They finally cracked the code.
glosses: To overcome a security system or component.
examples: text: to crack a whip
text: Hershell cracked his knuckles, a nervous habit that drove Inez crazy[…]
ref: 2001, Doug McGuinn, The Apple Indians:
glosses: To cause to make a sharp sound.
examples: text: The performance was fine until he cracked that dead baby joke.
glosses: To tell (a joke).
examples: text: Acetone is cracked to ketene and methane at 700°C.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To break down (a complex molecule), especially with the application of heat: to pyrolyse.
examples: text: That software licence will expire tomorrow unless we can crack it.
text: 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.
ref: 1997 April 1, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired, →ISSN:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To circumvent software restrictions such as regional coding or time limits.
examples: text: I'd love to crack open a beer.
text: Let's crack a tube and watch the game.
text: Old Bouvet was waiting in the passage when I entered, and he asked me whether we might not crack a bottle of wine together.
ref: 1894, The Strand, volume 8, page 569:
glosses: To open a canned beverage, or any packaged drink or food.
examples: text: To whom the boaſter, that all knights did blot, / With proud diſdaine did ſcornefull anſwere make; […] And further did vncomely ſpeaches crake.
ref: 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:
text: And Æthiopes of their ſweet complexion crack.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 134, column 2, line 268:
text: Stultitiam ſuam produnt &c. (ſaith Platerus) your very tradeſmen, if they be excellent, will crack and bragge, and ſhew their folly in exceſſe.
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cauſes of Melancholy. Vaine-glory, Pride, Ioy, Praiſe, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 3, subsection 14, page 126:
text: Cardan cracks that he can cure all diſeaſes with water alone, as Hippocrates of old did moſt infirmities with one medicine.
ref: 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: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection v:
glosses: To brag; to boast.
examples: text: The credit[…]of exchequers cracks, when little comes in and much goes out.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “Dedications”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To be ruined or impaired; to fail.
examples: text: An underground band that never cracked the Hot 100
text: 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.
ref: 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 102:
glosses: To barely reach or attain (a measurement or extent).
examples: text: […] they end up thinking that they can escape the pain of incel-dom by “cracking” a femboy […]
ref: 2025 September 17, Henry Giardina, “Transmaxxing, femboys & the groyper ideology that’s poisoning people’s brains”, in Queerty:
synonyms: word: approach
word: cohabit
word: company
word: copulate
word: couple
word: engage in sex
word: exchange flesh
word: have intimate relations
word: have marital relations
word: have sex
word: have sexual relations
word: intercourse
word: know
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: make love
word: mate
word: share a bed
word: sleep together
word: strain
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beat
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: bop
word: bounce
word: breed
word: bump nasties
word: bump uglies
word: catch a dick
word: dance
word: discuss Uganda
word: dip one's pen in someone's inkwell
word: do it
word: do the deed
word: do the nasty
word: eff
word: engender
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get busy
word: get down
word: get freaky
word: get it
word: get it on
word: get jiggy
word: get laid
word: get lucky
word: get one's dick wet
word: get one's end away
word: get one's freak on
word: get one's groove on
word: get one's leg over
word: get one's oats
word: get physical
word: get some
word: get the dirty water off one's chest
word: graft the forked tree
word: go all the way
word: haul one's ashes
word: have it away
word: have it off
word: hide the salami
word: hide the sausage
word: hide the wienie
word: hike the Appalachian Trail
word: hook up
word: hump
word: jig-jig
word: knock boots
word: lay pipe
word: lay the pipe
word: make it
word: make out
word: make the beast with two backs
word: make whoopee
word: meddle
word: ming
word: Netflix and chill
word: penetrate
word: pipe
word: pipe down
word: play
word: play hide the sausage
word: pound
word: rail
word: ride
word: rock and roll
word: roger
word: roll around
word: root
word: screw
word: see someone's etchings
word: sex
word: shag
word: shelve
word: show someone one's etchings
word: slap bellies
word: stick
word: tumble
word: Formal terms
word: bed
word: coit
word: coitize
word: dight
word: enjoy
word: feague
word: go in unto
word: go to bed with
word: have
word: know
word: lie by
word: lie with
word: love
word: mount
word: occupy
word: penetrate
word: season
word: seduce
word: sleep with
word: take
word: Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with"
word: Informal and slang terms
word: ball
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beep
word: be with
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: boom-boom
word: dick
word: diddle
word: dig out
word: do
word: doink
word: drill
word: eff
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: fill
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get into someone's pants
word: get over on
word: get up in
word: give someone one
word: give someone the time
word: go with
word: have one's way with
word: have one's wicked way with
word: hit
word: hump
word: jape
word: jump
word: jump someone's bones
word: knob
word: knock
word: knock off
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: lay
word: love up
word: make
word: nail
word: plough
word: plug
word: poke
word: pork
word: pound
word: prig
word: pump
word: ream
word: rock
word: roger
word: root
word: run through
word: rut
word: sard
word: schlong
word: screw
word: see to
word: service
word: shaft
word: shag
word: shelve
word: slay
word: slip it to
word: smash
word: smush
word: stallionize
word: swive
word: tap
word: tup
word: wap
glosses: To have sex with, especially penetrative sex.
Derived terms: black don't crack
crackability
crackable
crack a book
crack a crib
crack a crust
crack a fat
crackage
crack along
crack a smile
crackback
crack down
cracked
cracker
crackjaw
crackle
crack off
crack on
crack one off
crack one's fingers
crack onto
crack open
crack someone's egg
crack the egg
crack the flags
crack-the-whip
crack the whip
crack through
crack up
crack-up
difficult nut to crack
employ a steam engine to crack a nut
good black don't crack
hard nut to crack
one's egg cracks
outcrack
precrack
recrack
there's more than one way to crack an egg
tougher nut to crack
toughest nut to crack
tough nut to crack
use a sledgehammer to crack a nut
what's cracking
you've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette
Related terms: english: exhibiting fine-line cracks
translation: exhibiting fine-line cracks
word: crazed
word: hack