crack

adj

Etymology: Slang first attested 1793, perhaps from the verb in the sense of doing something quickly or with intelligence, or in the sense of "speaking boastingly" and having something to be proud of.

1. Highly trained and competent.

   “Even a crack team of investigators would have trouble solving this case.”

2. Excellent, first-rate, superior, top-notch.

   “She's a crack shot with that rifle.”

   “Every scratch in the scheme was a gnarled oak in the forest of difficulty, and I went on cutting them down, one after another, with such vigour, that in three or four months I was in a condition to make an experiment on one of our crack speakers in the Commons.”

name

1. A surname

noun

Etymology: Slang first attested 1793, perhaps from the verb in the sense of doing something quickly or with intelligence, or in the sense of "speaking boastingly" and having something to be proud of.

1. One who excels; the best, especially a winning racehorse.

   “Stanton had at one time a reputation for inaccessibility, but that has long since become a thing of the past, […] So that the gallops of the cracks' can, in most cases, be regularly watched and their daily doings truthfully chronicled.”

   “1st Gent. What dost think, Jockey? / 2nd Gent. The crack o' the field's against you.”

verb

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- Proto-Indo-European *gerg-der. Proto-West Germanic *krakōn Old English cracian Middle English crakken English crack From Middle English crakken, craken, from Old English cracian (“to resound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“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 (<< Latin crepō), Bulgarian пукнатина (puknatina) (akin to пу́кам (púkam)), Russian тре́щина (tréščina) (akin to треск (tresk)), щель (ščelʹ) (akin to щёлкать (ščólkatʹ)).

1. To form cracks.

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

2. To break apart under force, stress, or pressure.

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

3. To become debilitated by psychological pressure.

   “Anyone would crack after being hounded like that.”

4. To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture.

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

5. To make a cracking sound.

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

6. To change rapidly in register.

   “His voice cracked with emotion.”

7. To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering.

   “His voice finally cracked when he was fourteen.”

8. To make a sharply humorous comment.

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

9. To realize that one is transgender.

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

10. To make a crack or cracks in.

    “The ball cracked the window.”

11. To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress.

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

12. To strike forcefully.

    “She cracked him over the head with her handbag.”

    “I cracked myhead on a beam.”

13. To open slightly.

    “Could you please crack the window?”

14. To cause to yield under interrogation or other pressure.

    “They managed to crack him on the third day.”

15. To solve a difficult problem.

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

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

16. 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.”

17. To cause to make a sharp sound.

    “to crack a whip”

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

18. To tell (a joke).

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

19. To break down (a complex molecule), especially with the application of heat: to pyrolyse.

    “Acetone is cracked to ketene and methane at 700°C.”

20. To circumvent software restrictions such as regional coding or time limits.

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

    “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.”

21. 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.”

22. To brag; to boast.

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

    “And Æthiopes of their ſweet complexion crack.”

23. To be ruined or impaired; to fail.

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

24. To barely reach or attain (a measurement or extent).

    “An underground band that never cracked the Hot 100”

    “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.”

25. To have sex with a female or feminine person for the first time, especially penetrative sex.

    “Did you hear about Josh cracking Stacy in the school hall?”

    “[…] they end up thinking that they can escape the pain of incel-dom by “cracking” a femboy […]”

26. To have sex with a female or feminine person for the first time, especially penetrative sex.

    “i shifted to crack him. i cracked him real good in my dr.”