| 释义 |
cracker|ˈkrækə(r)|
Also 6 crakar, 6–7 craker.
[f. crack v. + -er1.]
One who or that which cracks (in any of the senses of the vb.).
1. gen.
1625B. Jonson Staple of News Prol. for Crt., To scholars..above the vulgar sort Of nut-crackers, that only come for sight. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 14/1 A teller of anecdotes and cracker of jokes. 1886Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xviii, A professional in his own line, a cracker of cribs.
2. esp. A boaster, braggart; hence, a liar.
1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) I. 12 Crakars and bosters with Courters auenterous. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 121 Two good hay makers, woorth twentie crakers. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 147 What cracker is this same that deafes our eares With this abundance of superfluous breath? 1652Ashmole Theatr. Chem. cx. 208 Beware..Of Boasters and Crackers, for they will thee beguile. 1746Brit. Mag. 48 Crackers against you are hang'd in Effigy.
3. familiar or colloq. A lie.
a1625Fletcher Woman's Prize iii. iv, Crackers Put now upon me? 1863Reade Hard Cash I. 28 That was a cracker of those fellows. 1871Daily News 24 July, Learning to tell lies, and call them ‘crackers’.
4. U.S.
a. A contemptuous name given in southern States of N. America to the ‘poor whites’; whence, familiarly, to the native whites of Georgia and Florida. Also attrib.
According to some, short for corn-cracker; but early quots. leave this doubtful.
1766G. Cochrane Let. 27 June (D.A.), I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode. 1767N.Y. Mercury 21 Sept., in Mag. Amer. Hist. (1878) II. 250 A number of people called Crackers, who live above Augusta, in the province of Georgia, had gone in a hostile manner to..Okonee. 1784Lond. Chron. No. 4287 Maryland, the back settlements of which colony had since the peace been greatly disturbed by the inroads of that hardy banditti well known by the name of Crackers. 1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 73 Sometimes..my host would be of the humblest class of ‘crackers’, or some low, illiterate German or Irish emigrants. 1856Olmsted Slave States 548 The operatives in the cotton-mills are said to be mainly ‘Cracker girls’ (poor whites from the country). 1887Beacon (Boston) 11 June, The word Cracker..is supposed to have been suggested by their cracking whips over oxen or mules in taking their cotton to the market. 1888Harper's Mag. July 240 They will live like the crackers of Georgia or the moonshiners of Tennessee.
b. attrib.; the Cracker State, Georgia.
1808Balance (Hudson, N.Y.) 6 Sept. 144 (Th.), [Verses by] a cracker planter. 1838C. Gilman Recoll. Southern Matron xix. 130 The servant told us that a cracker man and woman were in the drawing-room. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 659 Georgia..little deserves the name of Cracker State, by which it is occasionally designated. 1887Harper's Mag. May 843/1 Numbers of lawyers would gather together and relate their observations of Cracker life. 1908Daily Chron. 26 Aug. 7/4 Our cracker guides go everywhere in thin cotton trousers. 1910Washington Herald 27 Nov. 9 Through November the ‘Cracker State’ has occupied the center of motordom's stage.
5. A local name for the Pintail Duck (Dafila acuta), and the Corn-crake (Crex pratensis).
1678Ray Willoughby's Ornith. 376 The Sea-Pheasant or Cracker: Anas caudacuta. 1812Smellie & Wood Buffon's Nat. Hist. X. 155 Pintail, Sea Pheasant or Cracker. 1843Yarrell Hist. Brit. Birds (1845) III. 253. 1885 Swainson Provinc. Names of Birds (E.D.S.) 177 Corn Crake..Creck, Cracker, or Craker (North; Salop). Bean crake, or Bean cracker (South Pembroke).
6. a. A kind of firework which explodes with a sharp report or a succession of sharp reports.
1590Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) 39 Yes, yes, with squibs and crackers brauely. 1661Pepys Diary 5 Nov., Seeing the boys in the streets flying their crackers. 1702De Foe Reform. Manners, These are the Squibs and Crackers of the Law, Which Hiss, and make a Bounce, and then withdraw. 1851D. Jerrold St. Giles xx. 206 Not a schoolboy but would have had his..pockets stuffed with crackers.
b. (In full cracker bon-bon.) A bon-bon, or small parcel of sweets, etc., containing a fulminant, which explodes when pulled sharply at both ends. attrib., as cracker-motto, cracker-paper, cracker-poetry, cracker-rhyme.
1841Alb. Smith Delightful People in Mirror XXXVII. 404 He exploded a cracker bonbon. 1844― Mr. Ledbury xxiv. (1886) 75 They paid compliments, and said clever things, and pulled crackers. 1868W. S. Gilbert Bab Ballads 54 Only find out who it is that writes those lovely cracker mottoes! 1882B. M. Croker Proper Pride I. iv. 61 You remember the cracker we pulled together..on Monday, and I would not show you the motto? 1906Westm. Gaz. 8 Sept. 2/2 A tragedy in rhymed verse not up to the standard of cracker poetry. 1907Ibid. 25 Apr. 2/1 The gaily tinted scraps of cracker-paper that children love. 1934Dylan Thomas Let. 2 May (1966) 115 Cracker-rhymes that we..will imagine as the disregarded fruits of genius. 1942‘G. Orwell’ Critical Ess. (1951) 128 The collection of cracker-mottoes at the end of Man and Superman. 1954J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring i. 45 The crumbs and cracker-paper, the forgotten bags and gloves and handkerchiefs.
c. An attachment to the end of a whip-lash by which a cracking sound can be produced. U.S., Austral. and N.Z.
1835Monett in J. H. Ingraham South-West II. 288 To the end of the lash is attached a soft, dry, buckskin cracker... So soft is the cracker, that a person who has not the sleight of using the whip could scarcely hurt a child with it. 1880A. A. Hayes New Colorado (1881) x. 140 Each wagoner must tie a brand-new ‘cracker’ to the lash of his whip. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer I. xviii. 110 Stockwhips garnished with resplendent crackers. 1907W. H. Koebel Return of Joe 164 Fresh and efficient crackers swung continually at the ends of the stockwhips. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 64 I'd plaited a whip specially for the occasion with a new green cracker on it.
†7. A pistol. Obs. slang. (Cf. barker 4.)
1751Smollett Per. Pic. xxv, I don't value your crackers of a rope's end.
8. a. An instrument for cracking or crushing something; a crusher; spec. in pl. nut-crackers.
1634Massinger Very Woman iii. ii, A pair of nut-crackers. a1659Osborn Observ. Turks (1673) 344 The Tongues being at the best but the Crackers of Knowledge: the Kernel remaining useless..till picked and dressed by Employment and Experience. 1799Southey Nondescripts vi, It were an easy thing to crack that nut Or with thy crackers or thy double teeth. 1874Knight Dict. Mech., Cracker..3. One of the deeply grooved iron cylinders which revolve in pairs and grind the tough, raw caoutchouc. 1884West Sussex Gaz. 25 Sept., Turnip slicer, oilcake cracker.
b. humorously (in pl.). The teeth.
1815Lamb Let. to Wordsw. 9 Aug., I conjecture my full-happiness'd friend is picking his crackers.
c. A cracking plant (see crack v. 23).
1951[see catalytic a.]. 1963Williams & Jones Liquid Fuels i. 11 (caption) Fluid catalytic cracker. 1969New Scientist 7 Aug. 280/2 The products of the crackers go to other plant for conversion into intermediate and final petrochemical products.
9. a. A thin hard biscuit. (Now chiefly in U.S.)
1739in New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Register (1868) XII. 296 Wee haue..sent a box of Crakers to you. 1773Newport Mercury 20 Dec., Advt. (Th.), Said Johnson bakes the very best sort of crackers. 1781W. Moss Essay Management & Nursing of Children 108 Hard biscuit, commonly called crackers, are sometimes given; but they are heavy, owing to their being made without yeast and not fermented. 1810Naval Chron. XXIV. 459 Twenty barrels..flour, 20 barrels crackers, 30 bags navy bread. 1847De Quincey Sp. Mil. Nun Wks. (1890) XIII. 179 note, His patent for a machine that rolls and cuts crackers and biscuits. 1855O. W. Holmes Poems 108 Crackers, toast, and tea. 1868B. J. Lossing Hudson 28 The hunters live chiefly on bread or crackers.
b. attrib. and Comb., as cracker-bag, cracker-peddler; cracker-hash, a sailors' hash of biscuits and meat; so cracker-stew.
1876Wideawake (Boston, Mass.) 233/1 He picks up the cracker-bag and helps himself. 1897Kipling Capt. Cour. v. 127 On his return the cocoa-tins and cracker-bags were counted out by the Frenchman's wheel.
1904Daily Chron. 4 May 10/2 Cracker hash, a savoury mixture of salt meat and biscuit. 1924R. Clements Gipsy of the Horn ii. 38 Sea-biscuits broken into pieces and baked with small morsels of beef or pork and called ‘cracker-hash’. 1928Sunday Express 8 Jan. 4 Memories that go back to the days of ‘cracker-hash’, ‘lobscouse’, and hard-case. 1962W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 36/1 Cracker hash, minced meat and biscuits.
1860J. G. Holland Miss Gilbert's Career v. 76 ‘I'm going to be a cracker-peddler,’ said Fred.
1909Daily Chron. 14 Apr. 5/2 This is better..than cracker stew.
10. pl. (S. Africa). (See quot.)
1849E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Africa II. 13 Sheepskin trousers—which, from the sound they make at every movement of the wearer, are called ‘crackers’. Ibid. 121 Equipped in the easy..dress of a broad brimmed ‘Jem Crow’ hat, a fustian jacket, leather ‘crackers’.
11. slang.
a. A ‘cracking’ or ‘rattling’ pace.
1871Daily News 1 Nov. (Farmer), The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a cracker. 1891N. Gould Doub. Event 124 Rob Roy made the pace a cracker past the sheds. 1892Field 9 Apr. 514/2 The deer..went a rare cracker over Shirt Hill.
b. A break-down, a smash: cf. crack v. 15.
1869Daily News 8 Nov. (Farmer), He's gone a cracker over head and ears.
c. A pound(-note). Austral. and N.Z. slang.
1934W. S. Howard You're telling Me! 300 What about money?.. We haven't got a cracker. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 20 Cracker, a {pstlg}1 note. 1947Coast to Coast 1946 37 That damned old foxskin won't be worth a cracker to you. 1960N. Hilliard Maori Girl iii. ix. 240 I've got nothing, Harry: not a cracker.
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈcracker v. trans., to pelt with crackers. ˈcrackeress, a female cracker. ˈcrackery, crackers collectively.
1870Pall Mall G. 5 Nov. 5 They may not squib and cracker the inhabitants. 1883Chamb. Jrnl. 690 This young crackeress was..ill dressed and untidy. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 57 As much of squibbery and crackery as our boys can borrow.
▸ A. n. slang (chiefly Horse Racing). A large amount of money, esp. one won or lost on a bet. Now rare.
1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Good for Nothing I. vi. 70, I remember..Belphegor's year. What a cracker I stood to win on him and the Rejected! 1867‘Ouida’ Under Two Flags I. ii. 28 He had backed Forest King heavily, and stood to win or lose a cracker on his own riding. 1942L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §559/7 Large sum of money.., cracker.
▸ slang. Something exceptional of its kind; a fine or impressive example, a ‘corker’. Also: a very attractive, appealing, lively, or admirable person, esp. a woman. Cf. cracking adj. 3, crackerjack n. and adj.
1891J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang II. 201/2 Cracker.., anything approaching perfection. 1900Overland Monthly Jan. 45/1 Dag's jock was a regular cracker, and as reliable as his horse. 1914Dial. Notes 4 70 Cracker.., a fine-looking, stylish, lively person. ‘She's a cracker!’ 1963Weekly News (Auckland) 5 June 37/2 Bill was with me at Nokomai and he was a cracker. 1977Economist 20 Aug. 13/1 The United States has got itself a cracker of a deal in the treaty to end its 74-year control of the Panama Canal Zone. 1984‘J. Gash’ Gondola Scam (1985) viii. 55, I hear your lady is a cracker, Lovejoy. 1990Sun 1 Mar. 42 The pitch was a cracker..hard and shining. 1998Total Football Nov. 79/1 You beauty, you've scored a cracker against our rivals and condemned them to relegation.
▸ B. adj. slang (chiefly N.Z.). Fine, excellent; exceptional of its kind.
1964N. B. Harvey Any Old Dollars Mister 41 The huge Maori put the Yank down... ‘By Kori,’ he said with a kind smile. ‘That was a cracker yarn, mate.’ 1978D. Ballantyne Talkback Man 112 On a cracker day like this?.. I'm hot enough as it is. 1982P. Holden Wild Pig in N.Z. 45 They're cracker tusks, all right. 1998A. Warner Sopranos 323 Chell goes, I was saying, it's goan be a cracker day an we should go out Tulloch Ferry to my sister's place. 2001N.Z. Herald (Electronic ed.) 20 Jan. [He] said 1999 was a cracker year and people who saved did well, but last year was a correction—investment jargon for a bad year and poor returns. |