Search the Dictionary

bottom. By sucking out a little air, the bottom springs into a concave form with a smart crack; and by breathing or blowing gently into the orifice, the bottom, with a like noise, springs into its former convex form.

An interstice or small space, as between the cracks of the surface in certain crustaceous lichens; or as between the fibers composing organs or vessels that interlace; or as between the nervures of an insect's wing.

Snatched away; seized or possessed, as a demoniac; raving; mad; crack-brained. [Obs.] Odd, arreptitious, frantic extravagances. Howell.

nd masts to prevent chafing. (c) A long, thin strip used to strengthen a part, to cover a crack, etc. Batten door (Arch.), a door made of boards of the whole length of the door, secured by battens nailed crosswise.

A cement used in making joints, filling cracks, etc. For iron, the principal constituents are iron borings and sal ammoniac; for wood, white lead or litharge, whiting, and linseed oil.

less or uneasy. B. Jonson. (c) To be full of fancies; to be a little crazy. "She's whiles crack-brained, and has a bee in her head." Sir W. Scott.

o. [Obs.] I will board her, though she chide as loud As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack. Shak.

An opening caused by the parting of any solid body; a crack or breach; a flaw. Stain or brack in her sweet reputation. J. Fletcher.

the breast as defensive armor. Before his old rusty breastplate could be scoured, and his cracked headpiece mended. Swift.

Fractured; cracked; disunited; sundered; strained; apart; as, a broken reed; broken friendship.

To crackle; to rustle, as a silk garment. [Obs.] Gower.

explosives are properly called shells. -- Cannon bullet, a cannon ball. [Obs.] -- Cannon cracker, a fire cracker of large size. -- Cannon lock, a device for firing a cannon by a percussion primer. -- Cannon metal. See Gun Metal. -- Cannon pinion, the pinion on the minute hand arbor of a watch or clock, which drives…

To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough. Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain. Blackmore. Nor winter's blast chap her fair face. Lyly.

Small chick or crack. Bank check, a written order on a banker or broker to pay money in his keeping belonging to the signer. -- Check book, a book containing blank forms for checks upon a bank. -- Check hook, a hook on the saddle of a harness, over which a checkrein is looped. -- Check list, a list or catalogue by w…

A small cleft, rent, or fissure, of greater length than breadth; a gap or crack; as, the chinks of wall. Through one cloudless chink, in a black, stormy sky. Shines out the dewy morning star. Macaulay.

To break or crack, or crack off a portion of, as of an eggshell in hatching, or a piece of crockery.

Cheering; enlivening. He takes his chirping pint, he cracks his jokes. Pope.

To crack. See Chap, v. t. & i.

Full of cracks. "Choppy finger." Shak.

To part; to open; to crack; to separate; as parts of bodies; as, the ground cleaves by frost. The Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst. Zech. xiv. 4.