Cracker, subs. (common).—Anything approaching perfection. Used in both
a good and bad sense; e.g., a rattling pace, a large sum of money, a
bad fall, an enormous lie, a dandy (male or female) of the first
magnitude, and so forth. [Cf., Crack, subs.; senses 3 and 7, adj., and
verb, sense 1.]
1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. vi. ‘I remember ...
Belphegor’s year. What a cracker I stood to win on him and the
Rejected!’
1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 28. You know the University was in a
manner beaten, and he took the blame. He never cried; that was a
cracker of those fellows.
1869. Daily News, Nov. 8. ‘Leader.’ Now he’s gone a cracker over
head and ears.
1871. Daily News, Nov. 1. ‘Prince of Wales’ Visit to Scarborough.’
The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the
straight a cracker, Lord Carrington finishing a good first.
1883. Graphic, March 24, p, 303, col. 1. He [the Oxford stroke]
could also depend on his own men for not falling to pieces through
being taken off at a cracker.
Crackey.—See Crikey.
Crack-Halter, or Crack-Rope, subs. (old).—A vagabond; an old equivalent
of jail-bird. Cf., Hemp-seed.
1566. Gascoigne, Supposes, i., 4. You crackhalter, if I catch you
by the ears, I’ll make you answer directly.
1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, IV., i. Featherstone’s boy, like an
honest crack-halter, laid open all to one of my prentices.
1639. Massinger, Unnatural Combat, II., ii. Peace, you crack-rope!
1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘Hark ye, ye crack-rope
padder, born-beggar, and hedge-thief,’ replied the hag.
Crack-Hunter, or Haunter, subs. (venery).—The penis. Cf., Crack, subs.,
sense 4. For synonyms, see Creamstick.
Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves’).—House-breaking. [From crack, verb,
sense 2.]
1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. VI., 651. We are going a-flimping,
buzzing, cracking, tooling, etc.
Crackish, adj. (old).—Wanton, said only of women. [From crack, subs.,
sense 4.] Cf., Coming.
Crack-Jaw Words, Names, etc., subs. (colloquial).—Long words difficult
to pronounce. [From crack, to break, + jaw, speech.] Variants are
half-crown words, jaw-breakers, and cramp words.
1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. vii. ‘He brings
her plants with crackjaw names.’
1883. Daily Telegraph, June 25, p. 3, col. 1. ‘Some of the ways
with the crack-jaw names of cooking it would give it a foreign
flavour to me.’
Crackle or Crackling, subs. (University).—The velvet bars on the gowns
of the Johnian ‘hogs’ (q.v.). [From their resemblance to the scored
rind on roast pork.] The covered bridge between one of the courts and
the grounds of John’s is called the Isthmus of Suez (Latin sus, a
swine).
1885. Cuthbert Bede, in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xi., 414. The word
crackle refers to the velvet bars on the students’ gowns.
Crackmans or Cragmans, subs. (old).—A hedge.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 57 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874),
s.v.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874), s.v.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. The cull thought to have loped, by
breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope.
Crack or Break One’s Egg, or Duck, verbal phr. (cricket).—To begin to
score. [To make no run is to ‘lay, or make, a duck’s egg’; to make none
in either innings is ‘to get a double-duck,’ or to come off with a pair
of spectacles.]
1890. Polytechnic Magazine, 5 June, p. 367, col. 2. Watson bowled
splendidly, taking 8 wickets at a very small cost, two of his
foemen being unable to crack their egg.
Crack-Pot, subs. (popular).—A pretentious, worthless person. For
synonyms, see Swash-Buckler.
1883. Broadside Ballad, ‘I’m Living with Mother now.’ My aunty knew
lots, and called them crack-pots.
Crack-Rope.—See Crack-halter.
Cracksman, subs. (popular).—1. A housebreaker. [From crack, verb, sense
2, + man; literally one who cracks or forces his way into a house.] For
synonyms, see Thieves.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The kiddy is a clever cracksman.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 298, ed. 1854. I have no idea of a
gentleman turning cracksman.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 123. You’ll be a fine young
cracksman afore the old file now.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Aloys). Your cracksman, for
instance, thinks night-time the best To break open a door or the
lid of a chest.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 70. I’ll turn cracksman,
like my father.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Nov., p. 6, col. 1. The latest dodge among
cracksmen is to personate an electric-light man.