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crack
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
crack
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a clap/crash/crack of thunder (=one extremely loud sound)
▪ Lightning flickered across the sky, followed seconds later by a loud crack of thunder.
a gurgling/whistling/cracking etc noise (=a noise with a particular kind of sound)
▪ The water moved through the pipes with a loud gurgling noise.
at the crack of dawn (=very early in the morning)
▪ I was up at the crack of dawn to get the plane.
break/crack a code (=discover how to understand a code)
▪ The Enigma machine was used to crack the enemy codes.
crack house
crack/collapse/buckle etc under the strain (=become unable to continue normally because of the strain)
▪ They are worried that the court system might collapse under the strain.
cracked...whip
▪ The coachman cracked his whip and the carriage lurched forward.
cracking nuts (=opening them)
▪ We were sitting round the fire cracking nuts.
elite/crack troops (=the best, most skilled or most experienced troops)
▪ The general's headquarters is guarded by crack troops.
glass cracks
▪ Glass will crack if too much pressure is put on it.
ice cracks
▪ We could feel the ice cracking beneath our feet.
sb’s voice breaks/cracks (=becomes higher or unsteady because they are upset)
▪ Her voice broke and she was unable to continue.
seal a joint/crack/opening/gap
▪ A quick way to seal awkward gaps is to use a foam filler.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
down
▪ The former general campaigned on two policies: cracking down on crime and tackling corruption.
▪ He adds that there also is a push to crack down on magazines and newspapers that advertise the devices.
▪ Synod members were under pressure to crack down on gay clergy, who were portrayed as leading lives of wild abandon!
▪ Airlines reportedly are cracking down on this thriving but illegal trade.
▪ But conservative lobbying and fears of a voter backlash have prompted the government to crack down.
▪ The authorities have been reluctant to crack down on pachinko for other reasons as well.
▪ The U. S. Department of Labor has cracked down on wage violations in the past four years.
open
▪ After a few minutes he managed to crack open the lock with a kitchen knife.
▪ She refused the porter's offer to crack open the bottle, and settled herself for a long wait.
▪ From 27 February, eight score draws will no longer be enough to crack open the champagne.
up
▪ She'd never get through the ordeal without cracking up completely.
▪ He routinely cuts his assistant in half, then cracks up his audience with a bit of rib-tickling humor.
▪ Whatever happened she mustn't crack up.
▪ When Joseph told it to me, I cracked up.
▪ Janir and Matt were cracking up.
▪ Then I sow one of my colleagues die from a heart attack and two others crack up under the strain.
▪ This concrete path is cracking up under the strain of thousands of paws padding over it.
■ NOUN
bottle
▪ She refused the porter's offer to crack open the bottle, and settled herself for a long wait.
code
▪ But how are we to interpret the symbolism of other cultures; how can we crack their symbolic codes?
▪ He cracked that code in a hurry!
▪ Once the team has cracked this bidding code, they should be able to subvert it.
▪ Cecil Phillips thrived on the cerebral challenge of cracking Soviet codes.
▪ Paul used his computer to crack the code and continued as before.
▪ What they must do to achieve that is crack the code that enables them to win the big match.
crime
▪ But it's not though they've cracked one big crime ring.
▪ The 1995 law punishes crack cocaine crimes 100 times more severely than powder cocaine crimes, the association said.
▪ The former general campaigned on two policies: cracking down on crime and tackling corruption.
▪ In Wiltshire trading standards officers have made an important breakthrough in cracking the crime.
egg
▪ Drain and refresh immediately in cold water, cracking the egg shells to allow the eggs to cool more quickly. 3.
▪ If ever a sledge hammer had been used to crack an egg, this was the time.
▪ The vulture is manipulating the stone and using it as an extension of its beak to crack the egg.
▪ His notion of cracking an egg is to shoot an atomic blast at it.
▪ He cracked some eggs into a saucepan, adding milk and butter.
▪ The sides of the bus were soon cracking with rocks and eggs.
▪ Brown Owl let me and my friend crack an egg in a bowl.
government
▪ But conservative lobbying and fears of a voter backlash have prompted the government to crack down.
▪ Now the Government has proposed to crack down on mileage allowances by taxing drivers who cover large distances.
head
▪ Leonora flinched as his head cracked painfully against the lintel.
▪ He struck me hard across the mouth so that my head cracked back against the bathroom wall.
▪ The dead man fell backwards, his head cracking against the lap of a stone buddha.
joke
▪ Since the stonemasons were usually allowed to create their own designs, they were also given the freedom to crack good jokes.
▪ I cracked jokes, told stories, performed little tricks with the silverware.
▪ Maxie Carlo must've cracked a joke.
▪ Both laughed delightedly, as if I had cracked some very funny joke.
▪ And he was clean and tidy now, and civil, and could even crack a joke.
▪ Before tempers flared, Dutriz cracked a joke, and talk returned to the news.
▪ When he cracks a joke or whatever he does in front of the class, he just turn round and laugh.
▪ Mike and his robots maintain their sanity by cracking jokes during the movie.
knuckle
▪ Karma Rubbish smokes at the end of the garden, cracking its knuckles to pass the time.
▪ He sighed a lot, stretched his legs, cracked his knuckles.
▪ Dennis put his glass down and cracked his knuckles dramatically.
▪ It felt like he was cracking a knuckle.
▪ Wishart rubbed his hands together, cracking his knuckles as he tried to control his anger.
▪ Between moves he cracked his knuckles.
▪ Tom was trembling, sitting on the edge of a chair cracking his knuckles.
nut
▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
▪ One glance was all it took to realise this was one hard nut to crack - his features still completely impassive.
▪ He who eats the nut must first crack the shell Jeremy Cherfas Walnuts come in hard and convoluted shells.
problem
▪ The consortium's spokesman Chris Rowley claims his group is the only one to have cracked the retuning problem.
▪ Our fishermen had cracked the problem.
▪ But I've cracked the collection problem.
▪ Apple themselves had already cracked the communications problem with the AppleTalk network.
rib
▪ It nicked a lung and probably cracked a rib, but it didn't open the abdomen.
▪ I left my body while he did in my cracked ribs.
▪ He was reported to have also suffered cracked ribs and a broken jaw as a result of the difference of opinion.
▪ Glavine cracked a rib three years ago and missed one start.
▪ Once he had actually cracked her rib.
▪ A couple of weeks later the male chorus danced straight into him, elbows akimbo, and cracked his ribs.
▪ Coulthard, who despite x-rays to the contrary believes he has cracked a rib, made only passing reference to the discomfort.
seal
▪ Bowman cracked the seal, and pressed the button.
shot
▪ Koeman was involved everywhere and cracked in a 35-yard shot which cannoned back off the post after 48 minutes.
▪ He crossed from the left and when Freestone failed to cut out the ball Ryan pounced to crack in a shot.
▪ Beresford fed the ball in to Robert Lee, who turned and cracked a shot against the crossbar.
▪ I still have vivid memories of Chappy bursting between two defenders and cracking a shot against the bar.
skull
▪ You could crack your skull on that intractable stone, or it could scoop out spoonfuls of flesh.
▪ Donlan suffered a cracked skull and his nasal septum was pushed out of place.
▪ He has also cracked his skull and still carries the scar.
▪ If he had smiled a moment sooner Hicks would have cracked his skull.
▪ John Charlton fell heavily, cracking his skull on a kerbstone.
▪ I cracked his skull with a club, and they say it shook his brain loose.
▪ Unfortunately, leaping from my seat in the dugout, I cracked my skull on its roof and the world turned black.
smile
▪ Terence's face went from being startled by his attack to astonishment, then might have cracked into a smile.
▪ The model they kept in mind was the Hewlett-Packard 3000, a minicomputer that had never cracked a smile in its life.
▪ Red cracks a smile and moves on to get her due from the bench.
strain
▪ One of the professional golfers had cracked under the strain yesterday.
▪ The ruling Gaullists and the Communists alike were in danger of cracking under the strain of the May Events.
▪ Then I sow one of my colleagues die from a heart attack and two others crack up under the strain.
▪ This concrete path is cracking up under the strain of thousands of paws padding over it.
voice
▪ Dole himself, his voice cracking, can barely get through his words: This is a great honor for Bob Dole.
▪ The boys' voices had cracked and deepened.
▪ The voice cracked around her like a bullwhip.
▪ My voice almost cracked as I made a little speech thanking them.
▪ Michael Portillo seemed ill at ease, and his voice squeaked and cracked like a choirboy.
▪ But forgive him if his voice cracks or he stumbles over a word.
▪ She said his name, and her voice cracked.
▪ But at 13, his voice cracked.
whip
▪ Then the horn, and a hound yelped briefly as a whip cracked.
▪ Trumpets sounded, drums beat, whips cracked, mules squealed, and teamsters cursed.
▪ The sheeting - you know, the polythene sounded like whips cracking when the wind got into it.
window
▪ Two shots were fired at the wall, cracking the front window.
■ VERB
begin
▪ The international banking system began to crack.
▪ But having so little elasticity, that crust has also begun to crack.
▪ If tortillas begin cracking or breaking as you fold them, briefly heat them to soften.
hear
▪ He could hear the wings cracking, like whips beating the air.
▪ Meanwhile, have you ever heard Payton or Kemp crack a joke?
start
▪ But, three months later, the paint has started to crack and flake.
▪ Now the tunneling goes by, and my building starts cracking and sinking into the ground.
▪ So now your dream starts to crack.
▪ It is a nation with a contented image of itself that could be starting to crack.
try
▪ He has tried to crack down on corruption.
▪ They also have become a popular target for local legislators trying to crack down on gun violence.
▪ I may even try to crack Stanford.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a hairline crack/fracture
▪ She had a hairline fracture in her leg.
▪ I was worried about a hairline fracture, but luckily it was just a bad lump.
▪ The specialist he consulted on Monday diagnosed a hairline fracture of his right wrist and wants to take another look on Friday.
a hard/tough nut to crack
▪ Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.
▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
give sb a fair crack of the whip
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A few windows cracked from the heat during the fire.
▪ A stone hit the windshield and cracked it.
▪ A strong earthquake cracked buildings in northwest China.
▪ Cowboys cracked their whips as they herded cattle.
▪ Detectives finally cracked the murder case.
▪ Don't put delicate china in the dishwasher - it may crack.
▪ Freeman cracked his skull in the accident.
▪ Give Tom a mathematical puzzle and he'll just keep on trying till he cracks it.
▪ Harding missed seven weeks of baseball practice after cracking a rib.
▪ He slipped and cracked his head on the steps.
▪ Her stiff joints cracked as she got out of her easy chair.
▪ Historians used the Rosetta stone to crack the code of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
▪ Hold the egg in your hand and gently crack the shell with a knife.
▪ I cracked one of the wine glasses when I was washing it.
▪ If I don't get some time off soon, I'll be so stressed I'll crack up.
▪ It's a tough case but I'm determined to crack it.
▪ It's the first time the Spartans have cracked the top 20 in the rankings.
▪ Jim cracked his head on the bottom of the bunkbed.
▪ Mary cracked her knee on the corner of her desk.
▪ Milken's voice cracked on the first word. "Guilty, your honor."
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But forgive him if his voice cracks or he stumbles over a word.
▪ From 27 February, eight score draws will no longer be enough to crack open the champagne.
▪ Hereford usually crack or collapse in the dying minutes.
▪ Koeman was involved everywhere and cracked in a 35-yard shot which cannoned back off the post after 48 minutes.
▪ The international banking system began to crack.
▪ The sheeting - you know, the polythene sounded like whips cracking when the wind got into it.
▪ This would be the day that I finally cracked the North Shore.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
fine
▪ The glazed surface of the dish was a network of fine cracks.
▪ And it works well, the fine cracks in its surface merely adding to the character of the bass.
▪ Clinging to very fine cracks or imperfections is also out: geckos can cope with polished glass.
▪ Finally we locate the top pitch, a fine crack and poorly protected traverse.
▪ The textured version hides fine surface cracks, and is available in white and three colours.
▪ Griffith therefore postulated that ordinary glass is full of very fine cracks, too small to be seen by any ordinary means.
loud
▪ A strong wind was now blowing and there was a loud crack of thunder.
▪ Just as they reached it, the hinges surrendered and ripped loose with a loud crack.
▪ With a loud splintering crack the canoe broke, ending all hopes of damaging enemy shipping.
▪ The glass exploded with a loud shot-like crack.
sharp
▪ Sometimes a sharp crack and something falling into darkness.
▪ The umbrella fell to the floor with a sharp crack of the ferrule on the tile.
▪ We're used to the sharp cracks of lightning and the belch of thunder issuing from the belly of the sky.
▪ The bomb detonated with a sharp crack, sending tiny but razor-sharp pieces of metal into the backs of the gun crews.
▪ I was telling myself that it would soon be over when I heard a sharp crack.
▪ Her head hit the concrete with a sharp crack.
▪ The battle did not last long, bursts of automatic fire interspersed with the sharp purposeful cracks of single shots.
▪ The sharp crack of the pistol always brought her awake, cold and shivering.
small
▪ A.22 makes only a small crack.
▪ Over time, the surface becomes rougher and small cracks will open.
▪ Make sure that there are no small cracks or openings through which the emerging adult insect can escape.
▪ Golden brown mussels covered the walls of the main fissure and were heaped in mounds over smaller cracks between lobes of lava.
▪ Recently, a small crack appeared in our pedestal hand basin in the bathroom.
thin
▪ Part of its appeal stemmed from the Tom Bass fountain inset into its wall, a long thin crack in the stone.
▪ Perhaps it's just that we don't have enough of those long, thin granite cracks.
tiny
▪ A very tiny crack appeared in Jess's armour.
▪ But a tiny, treacherous crack of doubt had opened in his mind.
▪ She smashed down hard against it with the hammer, and the window shook, tiny cracks appeared like earthquake faults.
▪ There is only a tiny crack of light under the door.
■ NOUN
hairline
▪ The wind still managed to find a way through the hairline crack, whistling eerily around the interior of the freight car.
▪ A hairline crack runs down through the middle of the glass.
■ VERB
appear
▪ However, if cracks do appear, you should try brushing a mixture of peat or compost and coarse sand into them.
▪ When a crack appears in a strained material it will open up a little so that the two faces of the crack are separated.
▪ But it was after he'd given her the ring that the cracks had begun to appear in her façade.
▪ Two rows of pegs decorated her succulent crack, making it appear she had a wooden hedgehog between her legs.
▪ As the salt crust thins, so cracks appear in the surface and the flats begin to break up.
▪ In hot summer weather this frequently happens and, when drying is rapid, hair cracks appear.
fall
▪ It was also harder for students to fall through the cracks.
▪ Still, some children fall through the cracks.
▪ A handful of people fell between the cracks of the Great Divide.
fill
▪ Patches of ice and snow had begun to fill the crack in the ground.
▪ Hot magma from the mantle would rise to the surface to fill in the crack.
▪ Cracked rendering How do you fill cracks in rendering?
▪ Socks and rags filled the cracks under the doors and around the windows.
▪ But whatever he did, the Jaguar was always there, filling any crack in the traffic with stately inevitability.
▪ Most of us assume that government does the important things and voluntary efforts fill in the cracks.
get
▪ In this way the boys in the field still get a crack at the business.
▪ Davis represented a future in which everyone got a crack at the clock.
▪ It was the daylight, what bit that was getting through the cracks of the curtains.
▪ And then by the time they get their first crack at deducing who the polecat is, they will be in custody.
▪ You didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to work out yardages.
▪ Cardholders get a crack at a jackpot drawing March 7 and other prizes.
▪ Now a huge gash exposes the tree's dark innards, and the wind has got into its cracks.
▪ Do not get mixture into the cracks.
hear
▪ He heard the clean crack of a leg bone but did not lose consciousness.
▪ Corrigan heard the crack of wood.
▪ As Isaacs continued around Hungerford's narrow streets, he heard the crack of gunfire, at about 9.50.
▪ I squeeze the trigger, recoil, smell the metallic smoke, hear the shotgun crack.
▪ Lampard released the brake as soon as he heard the fierce crack of the first grenade.
▪ Constance heard the crack of his skull and his cry of pain.
▪ I was telling myself that it would soon be over when I heard a sharp crack.
▪ She heard the crack of another can opening behind her.
sell
▪ Police recently uncovered a ring that was selling crack through two girls living in the tiny town of Downs, population 620.
show
▪ I had a second X-ray on my injury last week and it showed that the crack had healed.
▪ It was firm in adversity, especially the well-designed addition, which showed no cracks at all.
slip
▪ Fog had slipped through a crack into the ivory tower.
▪ But somehow her name had slipped through some bureaucratic crack.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a hairline crack/fracture
▪ She had a hairline fracture in her leg.
▪ I was worried about a hairline fracture, but luckily it was just a bad lump.
▪ The specialist he consulted on Monday diagnosed a hairline fracture of his right wrist and wants to take another look on Friday.
a hard/tough nut to crack
▪ Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.
▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
give sb a fair crack of the whip
paper over the cracks
▪ Conversely, if you have been papering over the cracks of a relationship these same eclipses will seek them out.
▪ He did his best to paper over the cracks.
▪ King Birendra enjoyed considerable popularity, which enabled him to paper over the cracks in his divided kingdom.
▪ The private finance initiative has not papered over the cracks, although it has lined plenty of pockets.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Cracks began to appear in the facade of their perfect family.
▪ As I hit the floor, I heard a loud crack in my arm.
▪ Jagged cracks cut across the thick glass arch over the main entryway.
▪ Shirley has been addicted to crack for four years.
▪ The crack in the bedroom wall seems to be widening.
▪ The branch broke with a sudden crack.
▪ The X-ray showed several cracks in the bone of her left leg.
▪ There are a few cracks in the plaster.
▪ There was a loud crack of thunder as the storm began.
▪ This cup has a crack in it.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But somehow her name had slipped through some bureaucratic crack.
▪ Even with the car windows left open a crack, the temperature inside can reach 120 degrees in less than 30 minutes.
▪ Goons run rampant; crack is dealt on every corner of the Bronx, and law enforcement is something of a joke.
▪ Long chains of tiny craters on Phobos suggest the drainage of regolith into deep cracks that riddle its interior.
▪ Of course it would be ideal to have a material in which it was impossible to initiate cracks at all.
▪ Then ants would crawl through the cracks in the floor and build a big nest in the middle of the bedroom.
▪ Through the crack under the door I could smell Shelly loud and clear.
▪ Thus mild steel structures, for instance, can generally put up with cracks at least a metre long without breaking.
III.adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
cocaine
▪ An attitude, a tattoo and a supply of crack cocaine.
▪ He was on crack cocaine at the time.
▪ In recent weeks, drugs squad officers have seized quantities of crack cocaine in Gloucester and Stroud.
▪ When he did, the passenger, Jerry Wilson, dropped crack cocaine to the ground.
▪ Arrests for sale or possession of crack cocaine jumped from 41 in 1991 to 119 last year.
▪ A man found at the house, Ronald Lerma, 29, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a crack cocaine pipe.
▪ Information gathered by the national criminal intelligence service reveals a growing use of crack cocaine in the Shire counties.
▪ Like crack cocaine for the soul, Charlie's Angels delivers shameful, addictive, and no doubt tremendously harmful fun.
house
▪ Go to a crack house, Nick, and you can buy anything you want in the way of human flesh.
▪ Dilapidated public schools-their windows covered by protective grilles coexist with crack houses.
▪ Three of the apartments on the first floor were empty, and one was a crack house.
▪ Sometimes it means they help organize marches in front of crack houses.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a hairline crack/fracture
▪ She had a hairline fracture in her leg.
▪ I was worried about a hairline fracture, but luckily it was just a bad lump.
▪ The specialist he consulted on Monday diagnosed a hairline fracture of his right wrist and wants to take another look on Friday.
a hard/tough nut to crack
▪ Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.
▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
paper over the cracks
▪ Conversely, if you have been papering over the cracks of a relationship these same eclipses will seek them out.
▪ He did his best to paper over the cracks.
▪ King Birendra enjoyed considerable popularity, which enabled him to paper over the cracks in his divided kingdom.
▪ The private finance initiative has not papered over the cracks, although it has lined plenty of pockets.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ She's an accomplished horse rider and a crack shot.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A man found at the house, Ronald Lerma, 29, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a crack cocaine pipe.
▪ An attitude, a tattoo and a supply of crack cocaine.
▪ In recent weeks, drugs squad officers have seized quantities of crack cocaine in Gloucester and Stroud.
▪ It was undeniably dead. perhaps it had been stunned by a penalty kick from a crack centre-forward.
▪ Like crack cocaine for the soul, Charlie's Angels delivers shameful, addictive, and no doubt tremendously harmful fun.
▪ When he did, the passenger, Jerry Wilson, dropped crack cocaine to the ground.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
crack

Cocaine \Co"ca*ine\, n. (Chem.) A powerful narcotic alkaloid, C17H21NO4, obtained from the leaves of coca. It is a bitter, white, crystalline substance, and is remarkable for producing local insensibility to pain. It is classified as addictive and is not available in the U. S. without a prescription, but is nevertheless one of the most widespread illegal drugs of abuse. It is used in several forms, including small pellets of free base, called crack. Most of the cacaine illegally used in the U.S. is imported.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
crack

Old English cracian "make a sharp noise," from Proto-Germanic *krakojan (cognates: Middle Dutch craken, Dutch kraken, German krachen), probably imitative. Related: Cracked; cracking. From early 14c. as "to utter, say, speak, talk," especially "speak loudly or boastingly" (late 14c.). To crack a smile is from 1835, American English; to crack the whip in the figurative sense is from 1886.

crack

"a split, an opening," mid-15c., earlier "a splitting sound; a fart; the sound of a trumpet" (late 14c.), probably from crack (v.). Meaning "rock cocaine" is first attested 1985. The superstition that it is bad luck to step on sidewalk cracks has been traced to c.1890. Meaning "try, attempt" first attested 1830, nautical, probably a hunting metaphor, from slang sense of "fire a gun."\n\nAt their head, apart from the rest, was a black bull, who appeared to be their leader; he came roaring along, his tail straight an end, and at times tossing up the earth with his horns. I never felt such a desire to have a crack at any thing in all my life. He drew nigh the place where I was standing; I raised my beautiful Betsey to my shoulder, took deliberate aim, blazed away, and he roared, and suddenly stopped.

["A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself," Philadelphia, 1834]

\nAdjectival meaning "top-notch, superior" (as in a crack shot) is slang from 1793, perhaps from earlier verbal sense of "do any thing with quickness or smartness" (Johnson). Grose (1796) has "THE CRACK, or ALL THE CRACK. The fashionable theme, the go." To fall through the cracks figuratively, "escape notice," is by 1975.\n
Wiktionary
crack

Etymology 1 n. 1 (senseid en thin space opened in a previously solid material)A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material. 2 A narrow opening. vb. 1 (senseid en To form cracks)(context intransitive English) To form cracks. 2 (context intransitive English) To break apart under pressure. 3 (context intransitive English) To become debilitated by psychological pressure. 4 (context intransitive English) To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture. 5 (context intransitive English) To make a cracking sound. 6 (context intransitive of a voice English) To change rapidly in register. 7 (context intransitive of a pubescent boy's voice English) To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering. 8 (context intransitive English) To make a sharply humorous comment. 9 (context transitive English) To make a crack or cracks in. 10 (context transitive English) To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress. 11 (context transitive English) To strike forcefully. 12 (context transitive English) To open slightly. 13 (context transitive English) To cause to yield under interrogation or other pressure. (''Figurative'') 14 (context transitive English) To solve a difficult problem. (qualifier: Figurative, from cracking a nut.) 15 (context transitive English) To overcome a security system or a component. 16 (context transitive English) To cause to make a sharp sound. 17 (context transitive English) To tell (a joke). 18 (context transitive chemistry informal English) To break down (a complex molecule), especially with the application of heat: to pyrolyse. 19 (context transitive computing English) To circumvent software restrictions such as regional coding or time limits. 20 (context transitive informal English) To open a canned beverage, or any packaged drink or food. 21 (context obsolete English) To brag, boast. 22 (context archaic colloquial English) To be ruined or impaired; to fail. Etymology 2

  1. 1 Highly trained and competent. 2 excellent, first-rate, superior, top-notch.

Related phrases:
WordNet
crack

adj. of the highest quality; "an ace reporter"; "a crack shot"; "a first-rate golfer"; "a super party"; "played top-notch tennis"; "an athlete in tiptop condition"; "she is absolutely tops" [syn: ace, A-one, first-rate, super, tiptop, topnotch, tops(p)]

crack

  1. n. a long narrow opening [syn: cleft, crevice, fissure, scissure]

  2. a narrow opening; "he opened the window a crack" [syn: gap]

  3. a long narrow depression in a surface [syn: crevice, cranny, fissure, chap]

  4. a sudden sharp noise; "the crack of a whip"; "he heard the cracking of the ice"; "he can hear the snap of a twig" [syn: cracking, snap]

  5. a chance to do something; "he wanted a shot at the champion" [syn: shot]

  6. witty remark [syn: wisecrack, sally, quip]

  7. a blemish resulting from a break without complete separation of the parts; "there was a crack in the mirror"

  8. a purified and potent form of cocaine that is smoked rather than snorted [syn: tornado]

  9. a usually brief attempt; "he took a crack at it"; "I gave it a whirl" [syn: fling, go, pass, whirl, offer]

  10. the act of cracking something [syn: fracture, cracking]

crack

  1. v. become fractured; break or crack on the surface only; "The glass cracked when it was heated" [syn: check, break]

  2. make a very sharp explosive sound; "His gun cracked"

  3. make a sharp sound; "his fingers snapped" [syn: snap]

  4. hit forcefully; deal a hard blow, making a cracking noise; "The teacher cracked him across the face with a ruler"

  5. pass through (a barrier); "Registrations cracked through the 30,000 mark in the county" [syn: break through]

  6. break partially but keep its integrity; "The glass cracked"

  7. break suddenly and abruptly, as under tension; "The rope snapped" [syn: snap]

  8. suffer a nervous breakdown [syn: crack up, crock up, break up, collapse]

  9. tell spontaneously; "crack a joke"

  10. cause to become cracked; "heat and light cracked the back of the leather chair"

  11. reduce (petroleum) to a simpler compound by cracking

  12. break into simpler molecules by means of heat; "The petroleum cracked"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Crack

Crack may refer to:

  • Crack cocaine, the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked.
  • Crack, a fracture or discontinuation in a body
  • In geology, a crack or fracture in a rock

Crack may also refer to:

Crack (album)

Crack is the twelfth solo album by Z-Ro. Guests include Slim Thug, Mike D, Paul Wall, Lil' Keke, and Mýa. The album chronicles the life story side of Z-Ro, like most of his albums. He stated that the streets would be hooked to the name of it. The Chopped and Screwed version of the album was released on October 28. It is done by Michael "5000" Watts.

Crack (band)

Crack was a Spanish progressive rock group in the late 1970s. Si Todo Hiciera Crack was their only album released in 1979 by the record label Chapa. Despite its short period of activity, their work is commonly considered among the best of Spanish progressive rock.

Crack (password software)

Crack is a Unix password cracking program designed to allow system administrators to locate users who may have weak passwords vulnerable to a dictionary attack. Crack was the first standalone password cracker for Unix systems and (later) the first to introduce programmable dictionary generation.

Crack began in 1990 when Alec Muffett, a Unix system administrator at the University of Wales Aberystwyth was trying to improve Dan Farmer's 'pwc' cracker in COPS and found that by re-engineering its memory management he got a noticeable performance increase. This led to a total rewrite which became "Crack v2.0" and further development to improve usability.

Crack (film)

Crack is an upcoming 2017 Indian film directed by Neeraj Pandey. The film stars Akshay Kumar as Crack. Produced by Friday Filmworks. The film is scheduled to release on 11 August 2017. This is the fourth collaboration of Akshay Kumar with Neeraj Pandey after Special 26, Baby and Rustom.

As a special treat for their fans on Independence Day, actor Akshay Kumar today announced he is teaming up with filmmaker Neeraj Pandey for an upcoming movie, "Crack".

The hit duo previously collaborated on "Special 26", "Baby", where Neeraj was the director, and "Rustom", which had the filmmaker in the capacity of a producer.

"This time, we come together for 'CRACK' - A Neeraj Pandey film. Releases Independence Day weekend 2017. Need your love," Akshay, 48, tweeted.

The actor also shared a poster of the movie, which showed spectacles with its one glass cracked. The intriguing poster says 'Akshay Kumar in and as 'CRACK', and has a caption, which reads, "Every storm has a rage, every rage has a story."

"Friends, I'm happy to share with you that after Special 26 and Baby, in 2017, I'm collaborating with Neeraj Pandey once again!" read another tweet by Akshay Source: Here is The Crack 2017 Firstlook

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "crack".

If he had turned out to be the kind of asshole the name Acer implied, I would have had to crack him in the mouth.

Then I suffered a vision of Acer Laidlaw piloting Eightball back to Roderick Station with a hold full of atoms that had once been mine, and gritted my teeth so hard I cracked a filling.

Andrea went off without answering him, laughing at the acumen still left to this cracked wit.

He had the advantage of owning an excellent network of reporters of transgressions, for he enlisted Lucius Decumius and his crossroads brethren as informers, and cracked down very hard on merchants who weighed light or measured short, on builders who infringed boundaries or used poor materials, on landlords who had cheated the water companies by inserting bigger-bore adjutage pipes from the mains into their properties than the law prescribed.

Crack, Crack, Crack, their trigger hands in constant motion, ejecting old shells, chambering fresh ones, not really aiming as they yanked off their bullets, the recoils jolting them.

Approached from the desert Alcazar appeared to be a plain pinnacle of stone, hut a natural vertical crack in its northern face led into an inner central courtyyard open to the sky above.

Before she could say anything, however, Alise sat up in bed and cracked her head on the low ceiling.

But as they left the beautifully landscaped road that had carried them from the airport to the city and turned off into the urban residential district he saw that the splendor was, unsurprisingly, a fraud of the usual Alvarado kind: the avenues had been paved, all right, but they were reverting to nature again, cracking and upheaving as the swelling roots of the bombacho trees and the candelero palms that had been planted down the central dividers ripped them apart.

A huge crack opened in the floor, and Toth and Ament dropped into the pit and disappeared.

When Matesi struggled to escape a shrewd crack over his scalp with a marlin spike quieted him and, with his mates, he was shoved into the longboat and rowed out to where the Gull lay anchored at the edge of the shoals.

A multitude of anfractuous cracks spread out from the rim of the segment as though tendrils of frost were gripping the tube.

A patch of ocher plaster on the wall opposite the window was cracked in a spiderweb pattern, and in the center of the web stood an arbalest bolt.

Lapine as the latter was to crack down on banks - or the Argyle Museum.

Wolf Lapine and his followers had captured the garage first crack and were in full possession of the vans in which they expected to load the Argyle treasures.

Though there were hardly any survivors of the old unit that had fought beside the 109th in Arneis, the 66th still prided themselves on belonging to a crack unit that had fought in Ourdh, in Kohon, and in Arneis.