different between blast vs crack

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bläst, IPA^(key): /bl??st/
• (US) enPR: bl?st, IPA^(key): /blæst/
• Rhymes: -??st
• Rhymes: -æst

Etymology 1

From Middle English blast from Old English bl?st (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-Germanic *bl?staz, *bl?stuz (“blowing, blast”). Cognate with obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”). More at blow.

Noun

blast (plural blasts)

2. A violent gust of wind.

   • And see where surly Winter passes off, / Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; / His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill.

3. A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the mouth, etc.
4. A hit from a pipe.
5. The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace

   many tons of iron were melted at a blast

   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 146:

     Blast was produced by bellows worked by four 'blowers', three of whom worked at a time while the fourth stood ready to replace one of the others.

6. The exhaust steam from an engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
7. An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc.
8. An explosive charge for blasting.
   • 1852-1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts

     Large blasts are often used.

9. A loud, sudden sound.
   • c. 1832, William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field

     the blast of triumph o'er thy grave
10. A sudden, pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.

    • By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
11. (figuratively, informal) A good time; an enjoyable moment.

    We had a blast at the party last night.

12. (marketing) A promotional message sent to an entire mailing list.

    an e-mail blast; a fax blast

13. A flatulent disease of sheep.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English blasten, blesten, from Old English bl?stan (“to blow, blast”), from Proto-Germanic *bl?stijan?. Compare Middle High German blesten (“to stand out, plop, splash”).

Verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

1. (transitive) To make an impression on, by making a loud blast or din.
2. (intransitive) To make a loud noise.
3. (transitive) To shatter, as if by an explosion.
4. (transitive) To open up a hole in, usually by means of a sudden and imprecise method (such as an explosion).

   Blast right through it.

5. (transitive) To curse; to damn.

   Blast it! Foiled again.

6. (transitive) (sci-fi) To shoot, especially with an energy weapon (as opposed to one which fires projectiles).

   Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.

7. (soccer) To shoot; kick the ball in hope of scoring a goal.
8. To criticize or reprimand severely; to verbally discipline or punish.

   My manager suddenly blasted me yesterday for being a little late to work for five days in a row, because I was never getting myself up on time.

9. (transitive) To bring destruction or ruin on; to destroy.
10. (transitive) To blight or wither.

    A cold wind blasted the rose plants.

11. (intransitive, obsolete) To be blighted or withered.

    The bud blasted in the blossom.

12. (intransitive, obsolete) To blow, for example on a trumpet.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Italian: blastare

Translations

Interjection

blast

1. (chiefly British, informal) To show displeasure or disappointment; damn

Usage notes

Can be used on its own or in the form "blast it!".

Translations

Etymology 3

From Ancient Greek ??????? (blastós, “germ or sprout”).

Noun

blast (plural blasts)

1. (cytology) An immature or undifferentiated cell (e.g., lymphoblast, myeloblast).

Derived terms

• blast cell
• blastocyte
• blastoma

Translations

Etymology 4

From BLAST (an acronym for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).

Verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

1. (biology, informal, transitive) To run a nucleotide sequence (for nucleic acids) or an amino acid sequence (for proteins) through a BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).
   • 2004, Andreas Bommarius and Bettina Riebel-Bommarius, Biocatalysis: Fundamentals and Applications, p. 425:

     Blasting nucleotide sequences is not always that easy, because there is more ambiguity to the nucleotide sequence, and good hits have to have a 70% homology over the whole sequence to be reliable, compared to 25% with proteins.

Alternative forms

• BLAST

Anagrams

• Balts, blats

German

Verb

blast

1. inflection of blasen:
   1. second-person plural present
   2. plural imperative

Irish

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????? (blastós, “germ, sprout”).

Noun

blast m (genitive singular blast, nominative plural blastaí)

1. (cytology) blast

Declension

Derived terms

• -blast
• blastchill (“blast cell”)

Mutation

Middle English

Alternative forms

• blaste, blæst, blest

Etymology

From Old English bl?st, from Proto-Germanic *bl?stuz; equivalent to blasen +? -th.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blast/, /bl??st/

Noun

blast (plural blastes)

1. A blast; a sudden and forceful motion of wind.
2. One's breathing or respiring; the act of respiration.
3. The blast produced by a musical instrument.
4. An emission or expulsion of fire or flames.
5. The sound produced by thunder or storms.
6. (rare) The making of a pronouncement or proclamation.
7. (rare) One's spiritual essence; the soul.
8. (rare) A striking or attack.
9. (rare) Flatulence; the making of a fart.

Derived terms

• blasten

Descendants

• English: blast
• Scots: blast

References

• “blast, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-27.

Swedish

Noun

blast c (definite form blasten)

1. (uncountable) The stem and leaves of a vegetable, of which you're only supposed to eat the root. E.g. in potatoes or carrots.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English crakken, craken, from Old English cracian (“to resound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krak?n, from Proto-Germanic *krak?n? (“to crack, crackle, shriek”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerh?- (“to resound, cry hoarsely”).

Cognate with Scots crak (“to crack”), West Frisian kreakje (“to crack”), Dutch kraken (“to crunch, creak, squeak”), Low German kraken (“to crack”), German krachen (“to crash, crack, creak”), Lithuanian gìrgžd?ti (“to creak, squeak”), Old Armenian ?????? (karka??), Sanskrit ?????? (gárjati, “to roar, hum”).

Verb

crack (third-person singular simple present cracks, present participle cracking, simple past and past participle cracked)

2. (intransitive) To form cracks.

   It's been so dry, the ground is starting to crack.

3. (intransitive) To break apart under pressure.

   When I tried to stand on the chair, it cracked.

4. (intransitive) To become debilitated by psychological pressure.

   Anyone would crack after being hounded like that.

5. (intransitive) To break down or yield, especially under interrogation or torture.

   When we showed him the pictures of the murder scene, he cracked.

6. (intransitive) To make a cracking sound.

   The bat cracked with authority and the ball went for six.

7. (intransitive, of a voice) To change rapidly in register.

   His voice cracked with emotion.

8. (intransitive, of a pubescent boy's voice) To alternate between high and low register in the process of eventually lowering.

   His voice finally cracked when he was fourteen.

9. (intransitive) To make a sharply humorous comment.

   "I would too, with a face like that," she cracked.

10. (transitive) To make a crack or cracks in.

    The ball cracked the window.

11. (transitive) To break open or crush to small pieces by impact or stress.

    You'll need a hammer to crack a black walnut.

12. (transitive) To strike forcefully.

    She cracked him over the head with her handbag.

13. (transitive) To open slightly.

    Could you please crack the window?

14. (transitive) To cause to yield under interrogation or other pressure. (Figurative)

    They managed to crack him on the third day.

15. (transitive) To solve a difficult problem. (Figurative, from cracking a nut.)

    I've finally cracked it, and of course the answer is obvious in hindsight.

16. (transitive) To overcome a security system or a component.

    It took a minute to crack the lock, three minutes to crack the security system, and about twenty minutes to crack the safe.

    They finally cracked the code.

17. (transitive) To cause to make a sharp sound.

    to crack a whip
18. (transitive) To tell (a joke).

    The performance was fine until he cracked that dead baby joke.

19. (transitive, chemistry, informal) To break down (a complex molecule), especially with the application of heat: to pyrolyse.

    Acetone is cracked to ketene and methane at 700°C.

20. (transitive, computing) To circumvent software restrictions such as regional coding or time limits.

    That software licence will expire tomorrow unless we can crack it.

21. (transitive, informal) To open a canned beverage, or any packaged drink or food.

    I'd love to crack open a beer.

    Let's crack a tube and watch the game.

    • 1894, The Strand (volume 8, page 569)

      Old Bouvet was waiting in the passage when I entered, and he asked me whether we might not crack a bottle of wine together.

22. (obsolete) To brag, boast.
23. (archaic, colloquial) To be ruined or impaired; to fail.

    • The credit […] of exchequers cracks, when little comes in and much goes out.

Derived terms

Related terms

• crazed (exhibiting fine-line cracks)

Translations

See also

• hack

Noun

crack (countable and uncountable, plural cracks)

2. A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.

3. A narrow opening.
4. A sharply humorous comment; a wisecrack.

5. (slang) Crack cocaine, a potent, relatively cheap, addictive variety of cocaine; often a rock, usually smoked through a crack-pipe.
   1. (figuratively, humorous) Something good-tasting or habit-forming.
6. (onomatopoeia) The sharp sound made when solid material breaks.

7. (onomatopoeia) Any sharp sound.
8. A sharp, resounding blow.
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch 11:

     Mrs. Perkins, who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs. Piper in consequence for an unpleasantness originating in young Perkins' having "fetched" young Piper "a crack," renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious occasion.

9. (informal) An attempt at something.

10. (vulgar, slang) Vagina.

11. (informal) The space between the buttocks; the buttcrack.

12. (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Conviviality; fun; good conversation, chat, gossip, or humorous storytelling; good company.
    • 2001, William F. Gray, The Villain, iUniverse, p. 214:

      Being a native of Northumberland, she was enjoying their banter and Geordie good humour. This was what she needed — good company and good crack.

    • 2004, Bill Griffiths, Dictionary of North East Dialect, Northumbria University Press (quoting Dunn, 1950)

      "his a bit o' good crack — interesting to talk to"

    • 2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury 2007, p. 10:

      By the time we've got a good drunk on us there'll be more crack in this valley than the night I pissed on the electric fence!

13. (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Business; events; news.

    What's this crack about a possible merger.

14. (computing) A program or procedure designed to circumvent restrictions or usage limits on software.

15. (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.
16. (Cumbria, elsewhere throughout the North of the UK) a meaningful chat.
17. (Internet slang) Extremely silly, absurd or off-the-wall ideas or prose.
18. The tone of voice when changed at puberty.
    • a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act 4, Scene 2

      And let us, Polydore, though now our voices / Have got the mannish crack, sing him to the ground, …

19. (archaic) A mental flaw; a touch of craziness; partial insanity.

20. (archaic) A crazy or crack-brained person.
21. (obsolete) A boast; boasting.
22. (obsolete) Breach of chastity.
    • a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act 5, Scene 5

      But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd, I having ta'en the forfeit. …

23. (obsolete) A boy, generally a pert, lively boy.
24. (slang, dated, Britain) A brief time; an instant; a jiffy.

Usage notes

• (Scots language, common in lowland Scotland and Ulster, conviviality): In the last few decades the word has been adopted into Gaelic; as there is no "k" in the Irish language the spelling craic has been devised.

Synonyms

• (vulgar: space between the buttocks): bum crack (UK), arse crack (UK), ass crack (US)
• (cocaine that is heat-altered at the moment of inhalation): crack cocaine
• (A crazy or crack-brained person): crackpot

Coordinate terms

• (phenomenon from underwater explosion): slick

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

1793 slang, of Unknown origin

Adjective

crack (not comparable)

1. Highly trained and competent.

2. Excellent, first-rate, superior, top-notch.

Derived terms

• crack train
• crack troops

Related terms

• crackerjack

Translations

Finnish

Etymology

From English crack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kræk/, [?kræk]

Noun

crack

1. crack (variety of cocaine)

Declension

French

Etymology

From English crack.

Noun

crack f (plural cracks)

1. crack (expert person)

crack f (uncountable)

1. crack (cocaine)

Portuguese

Etymology

From English crack.

Noun

crack m (plural cracks)

1. crack (variety of cocaine)
2. crack (computer program for bypassing license-related and other restrictions)

Further reading

• “crack” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Spanish

Etymology 1

From English crack.

Noun

crack m (plural cracks)

1. crack (variety of cocaine)
2. champion, ace, pro, wizard, dude (outstanding person)

Etymology 2

From English crash influenced by crack and crac.

Noun

crack m (plural cracks)

1. Alternative form of crac

Further reading

• “crack” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.