crack 1 S3 / kræk / 动词
1 break [不及物和及物动词] to break or to make something break, either so that it gets lines on its surface, or so that it breaks into pieces :
Don’t put boiling water in the glass or it will crack.
Concrete is liable to crack in very cold weather.
He picked up a piece of rock and cracked it in half.
She fell and cracked a bone in her leg.
He cracked a couple of eggs into a pan.
2 sound [不及物和及物动词] to make a quick loud sound like the sound of something breaking, or to make something do this :
Thunder cracked overhead.
He cracked his whip and galloped off.
Dennis rubbed his hands together and cracked his knuckles .
3 hit [及物动词] to hit someone or something hard
crack something on something
I slipped and cracked my head on the door.
She cracked him over the head with a hammer.
4 not be able to continue [不及物动词] to be unable to continue doing something because there is too much pressure and you do not have the mental strength to continue
crack under
Some young executives crack under the pressure of having to meet tough sales targets every month.
He cracked under interrogation and confessed.
5 voice [不及物动词] if your voice cracks, it starts to sound different because you are feeling strong emotions :
His voice cracked slightly as he tried to explain.
6 solve/understand [及物动词] to find the answer to a problem or manage to understand something that is difficult to understand 同义词 solve :
I think we’ve cracked the problem of the computer crashing all the time.
It took them nearly two months to crack the code .
This new evidence could help detectives to crack the case .
7 stop somebody [及物动词] informal to stop a person from being successful :
Political enemies have tried to crack me.
8 open a safe [及物动词] to open a safe illegally in order to steal the things inside it
9 computer [及物动词] to illegally copy computer software or change free software which may lack certain features of the full version , so that the free software works in the same way as the full version :
You can find out how to crack any kind of software on the web.
10 crack it British English informal to manage to do something successfully :
I think we’ve cracked it!
He seems to have got it cracked .
11 crack a joke to tell a joke :
He kept cracking jokes about my appearance.
12 crack a smile to smile, usually only slightly or unwillingly :
Even Mr Motts managed to crack a smile at that joke.
13 crack open a bottle British English informal to open a bottle of alcohol for drinking :
We cracked open a few bottles.
14 get cracking informal to start doing something or going somewhere quickly :
I think we need to get cracking if we’re going to catch this train.
15 crack the whip informal to make people work very hard
16 something is not all/everything it’s cracked up to be informal used to say that something is not as good as people say it is :
I thought the film was OK, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
crack down 短语动词
to become more strict in dealing with a problem and punishing the people involved
crack down on
The government is determined to crack down on terrorism.
The police are cracking down hard on violent crime.
→ crackdown
THESAURUS
to become broken
break 动词 [不及物动词] to become damaged and separate into pieces : Plastic breaks quite easily.
smash 动词 [不及物动词] to break after being hit with a lot of force : The bowl smashed as it hit the floor.
shatter 动词 [不及物动词] to break into a lot of small pieces : The glass shattered all over the pavement.
crack 动词 [不及物动词] if something cracks, a line appears on the surface, which means that it could later break into separate pieces : The ice was starting to crack.
burst 动词 [不及物动词] if a tyre, balloon, pipe etc bursts, it gets a hole and air or liquid suddenly comes out of it : She blew up the balloon until it burst.
split 动词 [不及物动词] to break in a straight line : The damp had caused the wood to split.
crumble 动词 [不及物动词] to break into a powder or a lot of small pieces : The cork just crumbled in my hand.
crack into something 短语动词
to secretly enter someone else’s computer system, especially in order to damage the system or steal the information stored on it → hack :
A teenager was accused of cracking into the company’s network.
crack on 短语动词 British English informal
to continue working hard at something in order to finish it
crack on with
I need to crack on with my project work this weekend.
crack up 短语动词 informal
1 crack (somebody) up to laugh a lot at something, or to make someone laugh a lot :
Everyone in the class just cracked up.
She’s so funny. She cracks me up.
2 to become unable to think or behave sensibly because you have too many problems or too much work :
I was beginning to think I was cracking up!