Dictionary

crack up en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈkɹæk ˈʌp/

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (New-Zealand, colloquial) Funny; hilarious
   • In town people would stop and say to me, “Hey Becky, that cat story was crack up.” 2020 April 20, “The curious case of a fictional spa in Westport”, in Newsroom:
   • One person said it was "crack up", while the woman who uploaded it said "I'm a do it again (sic)". 2020 June 5, “Police looking into footage of woman twerking on Auckland Harbour Bridge”, in Newshub, archived from the original on 20 Sep 2020:
   • "It was crack up!" 2017 April 23, “McDonald's say 'neigh' to horses through the drive-thru”, in Stuff:
   • That joke was crack up.

Forms

crack up en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈkɹæk ˈʌp/

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To laugh. ▸ To laugh heartily.
   • It was hilarious. We were cracking up the whole time.
2. (idiomatic, transitive) To laugh. ▸ To cause to laugh heartily.
   • 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. 2022 October 21, Jason Bailey, “How George Clooney and Julia Roberts Quietly Became the Tracy-Hepburn of Our Time”, in The New York Times:
   • The joke about the nuns in the bath cracked me up.
3. (intransitive, slang) To laugh. ▸ To tease (someone) or tell jokes at the expense of (someone).
   • He's always cracking up at me about that.
4. (dated, idiomatic, in US, intransitive) To break. ▸ To become insane; to suffer a mental breakdown.
   • All rather inhuman and undernourished, isn’t it? Well, that, children, is the true sign of cracking up. 1936 February, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up”, in Esquire:
   • She got through the war, but cracked up when her sister died.
5. (idiomatic) To break. ▸ To break down or fall apart; to stop functioning; to shatter.
   • 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. (idiomatic, transitive) To break. ▸ To separate a group.
   • I have to crack up that little clique.
7. (US) To break. ▸ To crash an aircraft or automobile.
   • 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 […] 1983, John Thorn, David Reuther, The Armchair Aviator, page 101:
   • 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. 1930 December, Lawrence M. Guyer, “Chuck Luck: The Story of a Flying Dog”, in Boys' Life:
8. (transitive) To break. ▸ To remove the shell from nuts.
   • We can send you a hundred pounds a month of pecans to crack up.
9. (transitive) To break. ▸ To crack (petroleum). (to break down (a complex molecule), especially with the application of heat: to pyrolyse)
   • The refinery cracks up the heavier oils.
10. (slang, transitive) To affect the image of something. ▸ To praise or applaud (something); to promote a positive view of (something).
    • She wasn't as impressive as Katie cracked her up.
11. (dated, transitive) To affect the image of something. ▸ To insult, demean or harm the image of (something).
    • Those who have been cracking up the agricultural industry will hopefully reconsider their denigration of it.
12. (in the negative, informal, qualifier:usually passive voice, transitive) To affect the image of something. ▸ To cry up; to extol.
    • No use, with a bloke like this, cracking up your own merits. Stick to the truth. 1939 June, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter IX, in Coming Up for Air, London: Martin Secker & Warburg, published 1948 (April 1959 printing), →OCLC, part II, page 132:
    • This new computer system is not what it was cracked up to be.
13. (intransitive, slang) To smoke crack cocaine.
    • I need to crack up.

Forms

Deriveds

all it's cracked up to be

Translations (31)

de durchdrehen (to become insane) · pl rozwalić (to cause to laugh) · pl rozbroić (to cause to laugh) · fi hohottaa (to laugh) · fr péter un plomb (to become insane) · de schlapplachen (to laugh) · pt rachar o bico (to laugh) · fr éclater de rire (to laugh) · pl pękać ze śmiechu (to laugh) · de in Lachen / Gelächter ausbrechen (to laugh) · pl rozwalać (to cause to laugh) · fi nauraa (to laugh) · fi murtua (to become insane) · de kaputtlachen (to laugh) · ru ло́паться от сме́ха (to laugh) · fr craquer (to become insane) · de den Verstand verlieren (to become insane) · ru ло́пнуть от сме́ха (to laugh) · pl załamywać się (to become insane) · fr faire rire (to cause to laugh) · fr pouffer de rire (to laugh) · sv garva (to laugh) · pl rozbrajać (to cause to laugh) · pl załamać się (to become insane) · de überschnappen (to become insane) · hy ճաքել (to laugh) · fi tulla hulluksi (to become insane) · fi hohotuttaa (to cause to laugh) · de zum Lachen bringen (to cause to laugh) · fi naurattaa (to cause to laugh) · pt gargalhar (to laugh)