different between cackle vs crackup

English

Etymology

From Middle English caclen, cakelen. Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackle”), German Low German kakeln (“to cackle”), German kakeln (“to blather”), Danish kagle (“to cackle”), Swedish kackla (“to cackle”). Compare also Old English cahhetan, ?eahhettan (“to laugh loudly; cackle”), German gackern (“to cackle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kæk?l/
• Rhymes: -æk?l

Noun

cackle (countable and uncountable, plural cackles)

1. The cry of a hen or goose, especially when laying an egg.
2. A laugh resembling the cry of a hen or goose.
3. Futile or excessively noisy talk.
   • 1930, Frank Richards, The Magnet, All Quiet on the Greyfriars Front

     There's no time to waste on silly cackle.

4. A group of hyenas.

Translations

Verb

cackle (third-person singular simple present cackles, present participle cackling, simple past and past participle cackled)

1. (intransitive) To make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does.
2. (intransitive) To laugh with a broken sound similar to a hen's cry.

3. (intransitive) To talk in a silly manner; to prattle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

4. (transitive, gambling, slang) To pretend to rattle (dice) in one's hand while gripping them so that they maintain their orientation.
   • 1941, Mignon Good Eberhart, The Third Mystery Book: Six Short Mysteries (page 120)

     Danny cackled the dice furiously in his cupped hand, then rolled them so they stopped inches from Slattery's hands. The result was the same as before - a seven.

   • 2015, Jack Engelhard, The Prince of Dice (page 11)

     […] they spun all right, or so it seemed, and hit the wall all right, or so it seemed, but bottom line was this: The stirring of the dice was merely cackling, the cubes artfully framed so that the spots in the kid's fists showed 4?4 up?right and weren't really rattled but rather, held in control by the pinky, forefinger and thumb; […]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:laugh

Translations

See also

• cluck

English

Alternative forms

• crack-up

Etymology

From the verb phrase crack up.

Noun

crackup (plural crackups)

1. A crash or wreck, generally involving a car or airplane.
   • 1936, Joseph R. James, "More Gates Air Circus Antics" (Popular Aviation, November 1936)

     They shook the head of the unconscious pilot and when the latter opened his eyes, blinking wildly, the other members of the family lifted up the tail of the overturned crate sufficiently high enough to enable the dazed pilot, after releasing his belt, to fall out of the cockpit head first and disengage himself from the crack-up.