"cracking" in the noun sense
1. crack, cracking, snap
a sudden sharp noise
"the crack of a whip"
"he heard the cracking of the ice"
"he can hear the snap of a twig"
2. fracture, crack, cracking
the act of cracking something
3. cracking
the process whereby heavy molecules of naphtha or petroleum are broken down into hydrocarbons of lower molecular weight (especially in the oil-refining process)
"cracking" in the verb sense
1. crack, check, break
become fractured break or crack on the surface only
"The glass cracked when it was heated"
2. crack
make a very sharp explosive sound
"His gun cracked"
3. snap, crack
make a sharp sound
"his fingers snapped"
4. crack
hit forcefully deal a hard blow, making a cracking noise
"The teacher cracked him across the face with a ruler"
5. break through, crack
pass through (a barrier
"Registrations cracked through the 30,000 mark in the county"
6. crack
break partially but keep its integrity
"The glass cracked"
7. snap, crack
break suddenly and abruptly, as under tension
"The pipe snapped"
8. crack
gain unauthorized access computers with malicious intentions
"she cracked my password"
"crack a safe"
9. crack up, crack, crock up, break up, collapse
suffer a nervous breakdown
10. crack
tell spontaneously
"crack a joke"
11. crack
cause to become cracked
"heat and light cracked the back of the leather chair"
12. crack
reduce (petroleum) to a simpler compound by cracking
13. crack
break into simpler molecules by means of heat
"The petroleum cracked"
"cracking" in the adjective sense
1. bang-up, bully, corking, cracking, dandy, great, groovy, keen, neat, nifty, not bad, peachy, slap-up, swell, smashing, old
very good
"he did a bully job"
"a neat sports car"
"had a great time at the party"
"you look simply smashing"
"we had a grand old time"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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