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1. Excellent
   "he did a cracking job";
   - bang-up [N. Amer, informal], bully [informal], corking [Brit, informal], dandy, great, groovy [informal], keen, neat, nifty [informal], not bad [informal], peachy, slap-up [informal], swell [informal], smashing [Brit, informal], old, not half bad [informal], grouse [Austral, NZ, informal], ripper [Austral, informal], lovely

1. A sudden sharp noise
   "he heard the cracking of the ice";
   - crack, snap
    
2. The act of cracking something
   - fracture, crack
    
3. The process whereby heavy molecules of naphtha or petroleum are broken down into hydrocarbons of lower molecular weight (especially in the oil-refining process)

1. Used as an intensifier
   - very, really, real [N. Amer], rattling [informal], mucho [informal], thoroughly, rotten [informal], massively [informal], dirty [Brit, informal], excellently, magnificently, splendidly, famously, tremendously [informal], capitally, awesomely [informal]

1. Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only
   "The glass cracked when it was heated";
   - check, break
    
2. Make a very sharp explosive sound
   "His gun cracked"
    
3. Make a sharp sound
   "his fingers cracked";
   - 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";
   - break through
    
6. Break partially but keep its integrity
   "The glass cracked"
    
7. Break suddenly and abruptly, as under tension
   "The pipe cracked";
   - snap
    
8. Gain unauthorized access to computers with malicious intentions
   "she cracked my password"; "crack a safe"
    
9. Suffer a nervous breakdown
   - crack up, crock up, break up, collapse
    
10. Tell spontaneously
    "crack a joke"
     
11. Cause to become cracked
    "heat and light cracked the back of the leather chair"
     
12. (chemistry) reduce (petroleum) to a simpler compound by cracking
     
13. (chemistry) break into simpler molecules by means of heat
    "The petroleum cracked"
     
14. (of a voice) change in pitch, esp. as a result of emotional strain
     
15. Yield information under interrogation or torture
    "They managed to crack him on the third day";
    - break
     
16. Successfully decipher a code
    - break

Derived forms: crackings

See also: good

Type of: alter, break, break down, break in, break up, breakage, breaking, change, chemical action, chemical change, chemical process, come apart, decompose, fall apart, get, go, have, hit, modify, narrate, noise, pass, recite, recount, retail[2], separate, sound, split up, suffer, sustain, tell

Encyclopedia: Cracking