CRACKING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cracking mean? 

• CRACKING (noun)
  The noun CRACKING has 3 senses:

1. a sudden sharp noise

2. the act of cracking something

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)

  Familiarity information: CRACKING used as a noun is uncommon.

• CRACKING (adjective)
  The adjective CRACKING has 1 sense:

1. very good

  Familiarity information: CRACKING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRACKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sudden sharp noise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

crack; cracking; snap

Context example:

he can hear the snap of a twig

Hypernyms ("cracking" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Derivation:

crack (make a very sharp explosive sound)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of cracking something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

crack; cracking; fracture

Hypernyms ("cracking" is a kind of...):

break; breakage; breaking (the act of breaking something)

Derivation:

crack (hit forcefully; deal a hard blow, making a cracking noise)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The process whereby heavy molecules of naphtha or petroleum are broken down into hydrocarbons of lower molecular weight (especially in the oil-refining process)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("cracking" is a kind of...):

chemical action; chemical change; chemical process ((chemistry) any process determined by the atomic and molecular composition and structure of the substances involved)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cracking"):

hydrocracking (the process whereby hydrocarbon molecules of petroleum are broken down into kerosene and gasolene by the addition of hydrogen under high pressure in the presence of a catalyst)

Derivation:

crack (break into simpler molecules by means of heat)

crack (reduce (petroleum) to a simpler compound by cracking)

• CRACKING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very good

Synonyms:

bang-up; bully; corking; cracking; dandy; great; groovy; keen; neat; nifty; not bad; old; peachy; slap-up; smashing; swell

Context example:

we had a grand old time

Similar:

good (having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 Context examples 

There was no more shooting, though the rifles were still cracking merrily from the other boats.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Two russet-clad varlets, with loud halloo and cracking whips, walked thigh-deep amid the swarm, guiding, controlling, and urging.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Summerlee was weaponless, but I was emptying my magazine as quick as I could fire, and on the further flank we heard the continuous cracking of our companion's rifles.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Shortly afterwards, I heard the cracking of their whips die away in the distance.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

An internal water ocean could have frozen long ago, and the resulting volume change could have led to Charon cracking open, allowing water-based lavas to reach the surface at that time.

(Pluto’s Big Moon Charon Reveals a Colorful and Violent History, NASA)

Soon we could hear their footfalls as they ran and the cracking of the branches as they breasted across a bit of thicket.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A sensor array off the Pacific Northwest coast has captured the cracking, bulging and shaking from the eruption of Axial Seamount, a nearly mile-high undersea volcano, in more detail than ever before.

(Underwater volcano's fiery eruption captured in detail by seafloor observatory, NSF)

But a survey of more than 12,000 images reveals that at least one lunar mare has been cracking and shifting as much as other parts of the Moon - and may even be doing so today.

(Study Finds New Wrinkles on Earth's Moon, NASA)

The secret of long life for meerkats is not to battle the inevitable declines of ageing, but to be the ruler of your community, profiting from social support and cracking down on would-be rivals.

(Breeder meerkats age faster, but their subordinates still die younger, University of Cambridge)

"If I could go out of life now, without too sharp a pang, it would be well for me," I thought; then I should not have to make the effort of cracking my heart-strings in rending them from among Mr. Rochester's.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)