crack

• vt. 使破裂；打開；變聲
• vi. 破裂；爆裂
• n. 裂縫；聲變；劈啪聲
• adj. 最好的；高明的

擬聲詞。

crack

crack: [OE] Old English had the verb cracian ‘make a sudden sharp noise’, but English did not acquire the noun crack until the 14th century. Both are of Germanic origin (modern German has the related krachen, for instance, and Dutch has kraken), and the verb’s hypothetical ancestor can be reconstructed as *krakojan. The notion of ‘sudden sharp noise’ is semantically primary (presumably it was originally onomatopoeic), and the prevalent modern sense ‘fissure’ arises from the connection between the noise of something breaking and the resultant line of fracture.
=> crock

crack (v.)

Old English cracian "make a sharp noise," from Proto-Germanic *krakojan (cognates: Middle Dutch craken, Dutch kraken, German krachen), probably imitative. Related: Cracked; cracking. From early 14c. as "to utter, say, speak, talk," especially "speak loudly or boastingly" (late 14c.). To crack a smile is from 1835, American English; to crack the whip in the figurative sense is from 1886.

crack (n.)

"a split, an opening," mid-15c., earlier "a splitting sound; a fart; the sound of a trumpet" (late 14c.), probably from crack (v.). Meaning "rock cocaine" is first attested 1985. The superstition that it is bad luck to step on sidewalk cracks has been traced to c. 1890. Meaning "try, attempt" first attested 1830, nautical, probably a hunting metaphor, from slang sense of "fire a gun."

At their head, apart from the rest, was a black bull, who appeared to be their leader; he came roaring along, his tail straight an end, and at times tossing up the earth with his horns. I never felt such a desire to have a crack at any thing in all my life. He drew nigh the place where I was standing; I raised my beautiful Betsey to my shoulder, took deliberate aim, blazed away, and he roared, and suddenly stopped. ["A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself," Philadelphia, 1834]

Adjectival meaning "top-notch, superior" (as in a crack shot) is slang from 1793, perhaps from earlier verbal sense of "do any thing with quickness or smartness" (Johnson). Grose (1796) has "THE CRACK, or ALL THE CRACK. The fashionable theme, the go." To fall through the cracks figuratively, "escape notice," is by 1975.

1. The drug is variously known as crack or freebase.

這種毒品的叫法五花八門,有人稱為crack,也有人叫它freebase.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

2. She's calm and strong, and she is just not going to crack.

她鎮定而且堅強，絕不會垮掉。

來自柯林斯例句

3. In severe cases, the skin can crack and weep.

在惡劣的條件下，皮膚可能會開裂並流膿。

來自柯林斯例句

4. Drug experts say it could spell the end of the crack epidemic.

禁毒專家說它可能會結束強效可卡因吸食泛濫的局麵。

來自柯林斯例句

5. He went to the door, opened it a crack, and listened.

他朝門走去，打開一條門縫聽著。

來自柯林斯例句