crack-up

1 of 2

noun

1
: crash, wreck
an automobile crack-up
2
a
: a mental collapse : nervous breakdown
his wife's death brought on his crack-up

crack up

2 of 2

verb

cracked up; cracking up; cracks up

transitive verb

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

intransitive verb

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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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
Not so lucky was Roy Wilson, a veteran of over 65 aerial sequences, who was killed during the filming of Columbia’s War Correspondent (1932) when his plane went into a tailspin at 2,000 feet and cracked up on the ground. Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 14 June 2025 The two cracked up laughing, and not about how Ohtani was swinging the bat. Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 17 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for crack-up

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

circa 1926, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1829, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of crack-up was in 1829

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Crack-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crack-up. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

crack-up

1 of 2 noun
ˈkrak-ˌəp

crack up

2 of 2 verb
ˈkrak-ˈəp
1
: praise sense 1, tout
it's not all it's cracked up to be
2
: to cause or have a crack-up
crack up a car

More from Merriam-Webster on crack-up

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!