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
Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 May 2025
Here, Lauren Houser, vice president of marketing at cleaning solutions company Zep in Atlanta, Georgia, highlights six common hacks that really aren't all they're cracked up to be.
—Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 9 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
People were cracking up at how this interaction immediately reminded them of two young siblings fighting.
—Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 May 2025
Here, Lauren Houser, vice president of marketing at cleaning solutions company Zep in Atlanta, Georgia, highlights six common hacks that really aren't all they're cracked up to be.
—Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 9 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 25 May. 2025.
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