cracker
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cracker
- /ˈkɹækə(ɹ)/
Rhymes with -ækə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
From Middle English craker (“a boaster”), equivalent to crack (“to break, snap, utter, make a sound”) + -er. From crack (verb), the sound made when one is broken. The hard "bread" and "biscuit" sense is first attested in 1739.
The computing senses of cracker, crack, and cracking were promoted in the 1980s as an alternative to hacker, by programmers concerned about negative public associations of hack, hacking (“creative computer coding”). See Citations:cracker.
Various theories exist regarding the term's application to poor white Southerners. One theory holds that it originated with disadvantaged corn and wheat farmers (corncrackers), who cracked their crops rather than taking them to the mill. Another theory asserts that it was applied due to Georgia and Florida settlers (Florida crackers) who cracked loud whips to drive herds of cattle, or, alternatively, from the whip cracking of plantation slave drivers. Yet another theory maintains that the term cracker was in use in Elizabethan times to describe braggarts (see crack (“to boast”)); a letter from 1766 supports this theory.
noun crackers
- A noisy boaster; a swaggering fellow. What cracker is this same that deafs our ears?
-
A dry, thin, crispy baked bread (usually salty or savoury, but sometimes sweet, as in the case of graham crackers and animal crackers).
Similar: biscuit
- A prawn cracker. There was feasting and joy from Shanghai to the Wall, What with dim-sims, chop-suey and crackers and all, And the donor of these, by the hook of my crook. Was Chiang Ki-Konglong, the Mandarin Cook.
- The final section of certain whips, which is made of a short, thin piece of unravelled rope, or which is a short piece of twisted string tied to the end of the whip, which produces a distinctive cracking sound when the whip is cracked.
- A firecracker.
- A Christmas cracker. It is customary in every part of China to fire off crackers on the last day and night of the year for the purpose of terrifying expelling the devils.
- A northern pintail, a dabbling duck of species Anas acuta.
- A person or thing that breaks a thing (e.g., nutcracker). a lobster and crab shell cracker
- Refinery equipment used to pyrolyse organic feedstocks. If catalyst is used to aid pyrolysis it is informally called a cat-cracker
- A pair of fluted rolls for grinding caoutchouc.
- One who cracks (i.e. overcomes) computer software or security restrictions. It stated to one of the company's operators, “The Phantom, the system cracker, strikes again . . . Soon I will zero (expletive deleted) your desks and your backups on System A. I have already cracked your System B.
- A fine, great thing or person (crackerjack). She's an absolute cracker!
- An ambitious or hard-working person (i.e. someone who arises at the 'crack' of dawn).
-
An impoverished white person from the southeastern United States, originally associated with Georgia and parts of Florida; (by extension) any white person (slang).
Brothers and the whiteys / Blacks and the crackers / Police and their backers / They're all political actors
Similar: corn-cracker, honky, peckerwood, redneck, trailer trash, white trash, whitey, wonderbread, abelungu, ang moh, Angrez, balanda
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: cracker bonbon, banger, firecracker, snapper, redneck, saltine, cookie, biscuit, twinkie, cake, bisque, cannoli, rusk, pot, vanilla, snack
Translations
Every language
noun crispy baked bread, usually salty or savoury
| Español | galleta, galleta de agua, galleta salada, saltina |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 크래커 keuraekeo |
| 日本語 | クラッカー kurakkā |
| 中文 | 梳打餅 /梳打饼 shūdǎbǐng, 克力架 kèlìjià, 餅乾 /饼干 bǐnggān |
| Português | bolacha, crocante |
| Français | cracker, craquelin |
| Deutsch | Cracker |
| Italiano | cracker |
| Русский | кре́кер krɛ́ker, сухо́е пече́нье suxóje pečénʹje, суха́рь suxárʹ |
| עברית | קרקר qráqer |
noun short piece of string tied to the end of whip
| 日本語 | クラッカー kurakkā |
|---|
noun derogatory: white person
| 日本語 | 白んぼ shironbo |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 鬼佬 guǐlǎo, 白皮豬 /白皮猪 báipízhū |
| Português | branquelo |
| Italiano | mozzarella |
Talk about this word "cracker." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cracker. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. cracker. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cracker "cracker." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cracker.Cite this
@misc{cracker_2026,
title = {cracker},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cracker},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
