2
a
: a mental collapse : nervous breakdown
his wife's death brought on his crack-up
cracked up; cracking up; cracks up
1
: praise, tout sense 1
wasn't all that it was cracked up to be
2
: to damage or destroy (a vehicle) by crashing
crack up a car
3
: to cause to laugh out loud
that joke really cracks him up
1
: to damage or destroy a vehicle (as by losing control)
cracked up on a curve
2
: to laugh out loud
Examples of crack-up in a Sentence
Noun
a crack-up required him to take a year off from work
two people were injured in a serious crack-up on the interstate
Verb
that sports car isn't all it's cracked up to be
the movie is being cracked up as the blockbuster of the summer
Recent Examples on the Web
Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025
Because even the most powerful companies are just participants in a broader world, and if the rage of those who are sacrificed to feed the bottom line wrecks that broader world, well, then a crack-up is coming.
—airmail.news, 25 Jan. 2025
Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 7 June 2025
Finishing each other’s sentences, cracking up at the same things, going off on (heartwarming!) tangents, sharing the splash of extra wine the waiter pours, asking me interesting questions.
—Perrie Samotin, Glamour, 29 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for crack-up
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Noun
Despite the book’s title, Buchanan had some hope for the West (in his us-and-them sense of the term) and was confident in globalism’s impending crack-up.
—Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025
Because even the most powerful companies are just participants in a broader world, and if the rage of those who are sacrificed to feed the bottom line wrecks that broader world, well, then a crack-up is coming.
—airmail.news, 25 Jan. 2025
Verb
The audience is too, repeatedly cracking up during a 25th anniversary screening and reunion Q&A at the Tribeca Festival Saturday.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 7 June 2025
Finishing each other’s sentences, cracking up at the same things, going off on (heartwarming!) tangents, sharing the splash of extra wine the waiter pours, asking me interesting questions.
—Perrie Samotin, Glamour, 29 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for crack-up
Cite this Entry
“Crack-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crack-up. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.
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