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crack up

verb

  1. crack up: cause hilarity, causing hilarity
  2. crack up: go crazy, go crazy
L1475688 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈkɹæk ˈʌp/

adj

Etymology: Compare Japanese 笑う (warau, “laugh, smile”), suffixed from Japanese 割る (waru, “crack”).

  1. Funny; hilarious

    That joke was crack up.

    "It was crack up!"

verb

Etymology: Compare Japanese 笑う (warau, “laugh, smile”), suffixed from Japanese 割る (waru, “crack”).

  1. To laugh.

    It was hilarious. We were cracking up the whole time.

  2. To laugh.

    The joke about the nuns in the bath cracked me up.

    The joy of “Ticket to Paradise” comes not from its predictable plotting or razor-thin screenplay; it’s from watching them together, from observing how the sparks still fly, and (when the former flames get drunk and let their guards down, or during the end-credit outtakes) watching them crack each other up.

  3. To laugh.

    He's always cracking up at me about that.

  4. To break.

    She got through the war, but cracked up when her sister died.

    All rather inhuman and undernourished, isn’t it? Well, that, children, is the true sign of cracking up.

  5. To break.

    The university was really cracking up, losing faculty, students and donors, and it seemed like to go under.

    My motorcycle cracked up before I arrived.

  6. To break.

    I have to crack up that little clique.

  7. To break.

    From all directions they came to the rescue, one predominant fear gripping their hearts: Fire! Someone had cracked-up. It was for this they sped. The flames that so frequently burst from a crashed airplane became an instantaneous cauldron; many a pilot has lived through the crash to die in the fire that followed.

    When I reported this to Burwell by telephone, he called me a Chinese ace — in those days Chinese aces were pilots who cracked up their own airplanes […]

  8. To break.

    We can send you a hundred pounds a month of pecans to crack up.

  9. To break.

    The refinery cracks up the heavier oils.

  10. To affect the image of something.

    She wasn't as impressive as Katie cracked her up.

  11. To affect the image of something.

    Those who have been cracking up the agricultural industry will hopefully reconsider their denigration of it.

  12. To affect the image of something.

    This new computer system is not what it was cracked up to be.

    No use, with a bloke like this, cracking up your own merits. Stick to the truth.

  13. To smoke crack cocaine.

    I need to crack up.