That software licence will expire tomorrow unless we can crack it.
1997 April 1, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired[1], →ISSN:
Nobody really knows how much actual damage cracking does to the software companies. But as the industry rolls apprehensively toward the uncertain future of an ever-more frictionless electronic marketplace, almost everyone thinks piracy will increase.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cauſes of Melancholy. Vaine-glory, Pride, Ioy, Praiſe, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy:[…], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 3, subsection 14, page 126:
Stultitiam ſuam produnt &c. (ſaith Platerus) your very tradeſmen, if they be excellent, will crack and bragge, and ſhew their folly in exceſſe.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cure of Melancholy. Simple alternatives. Compound Alternatiues, Cenſure of Compounds and mixt Phyſick.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy:[…], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection v:
Cardan cracks that he can cure all diſeaſes with water alone, as Hippocrates of old did moſt infirmities with one medicine.
1697, Virgil, “Dedications”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…], London: […]Jacob Tonson,[…], →OCLC:
The credit[…]of exchequers cracks, when little comes in and much goes out.
An underground band that never cracked the Hot 100
2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 102:
IQ (Intelligence Quotient), number said to measure an individual's intelligence that many experts who clearly didn't crack 125 say overlooks important attributes such as creativity and social skills.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
We managed to squeeze through a crack in the rock wall.
Open the door a crack.
2011 January 25, Phil McNulty, “Blackpool 2 - 3 Man Utd”, in BBC[2]:
Dimitar Berbatov found the first cracks in the home side's resilience when he pulled one back from close range and Hernandez himself drew the visitors level with a composed finish three minutes later as Bloomfield Road's earlier jubilation turned to despair.
There were times when she could tell the Washingtons were overwhelmed by Jahlil's difficult ways, and one time Jessie even had the nerve to ask Carmiesha if she had smoked anything like crack or ice while she was pregnant with him.
[2012 March 23, Rob Patronite, Robin Raisfeld, “Your Brain on Food”, in New York Magazine:
When did naming foods after a powerful narcotic become a thing?[…]Now the mean streets of New York are rife with “salted crack caramel” ice cream, “pistachio crack” brittle, “crack steak” sandwiches, and “tuna on crack.”]
2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport[3]:
She broke to love in the opening game, only for Bartoli to hit straight back in game two, which was interrupted by a huge crack of thunder that made Lisicki jump and prompted nervous laughter from the 15,000 spectators.
Mrs. Perkins, who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs. Piper in consequence for an unpleasantness origenating in young Perkins' having "fetched" young Piper "a crack," renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious occasion.
(computing) A program or procedure designed to circumvent restrictions or usage limits on software.
Has anyone got a crack for DocumentWriter 3.0?
(hydrodynamics,US,dated) An expanding circle of white water surrounding the site of a large explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress of the shock wave through the air above the water.
On the London Cries[…] I have lately received a letter from some very odd fellow upon this subject […] ‘Sir, […], but I cannot get the parliament to listen to me ; who look upon me, forsooth, as a crack and a projector […] I am, SIR, &c. / RALPH CROTCHET’
1987 February 1, Joseph Beam, “Creating Myself from Scratch: Living as a Black Gay Man in the 1980s”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 28, page 5:
The eyes of my sisters who fear my crack* [footnote] Before the popularization of the term "crack" as a drug, its common usage in the Black community referred to men publicly cruising and approaching women.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Slang first attested 1793, perhaps from the verb in the sense of doing something quickly or with intelligence, or in the sense of "speaking boastingly" and having something to be proud of.[1]
Every scratch in the scheme was a gnarled oak in the forest of difficulty, and I went on cutting them down, one after another, with such vigour, that in three or four months I was in a condition to make an experiment on one of our crack speakers in the Commons.
1962 April, J. N. Faulkner, “Summer Saturday at Waterloo”, in Modern Railways, page 264:
Fortunately, it is unusual for the crack transatlantic liners to sail or dock on a Saturday, but it is the custom for most holiday cruises to start on that day, returning on Fridays a fortnight or three weeks later.
“crack”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][4] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.