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Chambers (1908)

Crack

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This edition’s origin note

[A.S. cracian, to crack; cf. Dut. kraken, Gael. crac.]

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The complete extracted entry

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Crack, krak, v.i. to utter a sharp sudden sound: to split: to boast: to chat.—v.t. to produce a sudden noise: to break into chinks: to split: to break partially or wholly: to open (a bottle).—n. a sudden sharp splitting sound: a chink: a flaw: a blow, a smack: friendly chat: (slang) housebreaking: a craze: one who has a craze: a pert boy.—adj. (coll.) excellent.—n. Crack′-brain, a crazy person.—adjs. Crack′-brained; Cracked, rent: damaged: crazy.—ns. Crack′er, one who or that which cracks: a boaster, a lie: the pin-tail duck: (U.S.) a thin crisp biscuit: a bonbon, or a small firework, exploding when pulled asunder: (U.S.) a poor white; Crack′-halt′er, Crack′-hemp (Shak.), Crack′-rope, one likely to be hanged.—adj. Crack′-jaw, of a word, hard to pronounce.—ns. Cracks′man, a burglar; Crack′-tryst, one who breaks an engagement.—Crack credit, to destroy one's credit; Crack tryst, to break an engagement; Crack up, to praise. [A.S. cracian, to crack; cf. Dut. kraken, Gael. crac.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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