different between crack vs hole

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.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /h??l/, [h???], [h???]
• Rhymes: -??l
• (US) IPA^(key): /ho?l/, [ho??]
• Rhymes: -o?l
• Homophone: whole (depends on accent)

Etymology 1

From Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol, from Proto-Germanic *hul? (“hollow space, cavity”) noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”).

Noun

hole (plural holes)

1. A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; an opening in or through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent; a fissure.

   • The priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid.

   • 1840, Alfred Tennyson, Godiva:

     […] her palfrey’s footfall shot
     Light horrors thro’ her pulses: the blind walls
     Were full of chinks and holes; and overhead
     Fantastic gables, crowding, stared: […]
   1. An opening in a solid.

2. (heading) In games.
   1. (golf) A subsurface standard-size hole, also called cup, hitting the ball into which is the object of play. Each hole, of which there are usually eighteen as the standard on a full course, is located on a prepared surface, called the green, of a particular type grass.
   2. (golf) The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.

   3. (baseball) The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.

   4. (chess) A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in future, control with a friendly pawn.
   5. (stud poker) A card (also called a hole card) dealt face down thus unknown to all but its holder; the status in which such a card is.
   6. In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
3. (archaeology, slang) An excavation pit or trench.
4. (figuratively) A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
   • 2011, Fun - We Are Young

     But between the drinks and subtle things / The holes in my apologies, you know / I’m trying hard to take it back

5. (informal) A container or receptacle.

6. (physics) In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
7. (computing) A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
8. (slang, anatomy) An orifice, in particular the anus. When used with shut it always refers to the mouth.

9. (Ireland, Scotland, particularly in the phrase "get one's hole") Sex, or a sex partner.

   Are you going out to get your hole tonight?

10. (informal, with "the") Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.

    Synonym: box

    • 2011, Ahmariah Jackson, IAtomic Seven, Locked Up but Not Locked Down

      Disciplinary actions can range from a mere write up to serious time in the hole.

11. (slang) An undesirable place to live or visit; a hovel.

12. (figuratively) Difficulty, in particular, debt.

13. (graph theory) A chordless cycle in a graph.
14. (slang, rail transport) A passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hole
• (solitary confinement): administrative segregation, ad-seg, block (UK), box, cooler (UK), hotbox, lockdown, pound, SCU, security housing unit, SHU, special handling unit

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (h?ru)
• Sranan Tongo: olo

Translations

Verb

hole (third-person singular simple present holes, present participle holing, simple past and past participle holed)

1. (transitive) To make holes in (an object or surface).

2. (transitive, by extension) To destroy.

3. (intransitive) To go into a hole.
4. (transitive) To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.
   • 1799, Sporting Magazine (volume 13, page 49)

     If the player holes the red ball, he scores three, and upon holing his adversary's ball, he gains two; and thus it frequently happens, that seven are got upon a single stroke, by caramboling and holing both balls.

5. (transitive) To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.

   to hole a post for the insertion of rails or bars

Derived terms

• holeable
• holer
• hole out
• hole up

Translations

Etymology 2

Adjective

hole (comparative holer or more hole, superlative holest or most hole)

1. Obsolete form of whole.
   • 1843, Sir George Webbe Dasent (translator), A grammar of the Icelandic or Old Norse tongue (originally by Rasmus Christian Rask)

     Such was the arrangement of the alphabet over the hole North.

Anagrams

• Hoel, OHLE, helo, ohel, oleh

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??ol?]

Noun

hole

1. inflection of h?l:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

Verb

hole

1. masculine singular present transgressive of holit

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ho?l?/

Verb

hole

1. inflection of holen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

Hausa

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hó?.lè?/

Verb

h?l? (grade 4)

1. to relax, to enjoy oneself

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English h?l

Adjective

hole

1. healthy
2. safe
3. whole, complete, full

Alternative forms

• hol, ol, ole, hoal, hoale, hoel, hoil, hoille, holle, wholle
• hal, hale, halle (Northern)

References

• “h?l(e, adj.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Adverb

hole

1. wholly

Alternative forms

• hol

References

• “h?l(e, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Noun

hole (plural holes)

1. whole, entirety
2. health
3. remedy, cure

Alternative forms

• hol

References

• “h?l(e, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Descendants

• English: whole
• Scots: hole, holl

Etymology 2

From Old English hol

Noun

hole (plural holes or holen)

1. hole

Alternative forms

• hol, ol, ole, holle, hoil, houl, hul

Descendants

• English: hole
• Scots: hole

References

• “h??l(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

From Old English hulu; see hull for more.

Noun

hole (plural holes)

1. hull (outer covering of a fruit or seed)
2. hut, shelter
3. hull (of a ship)

Alternative forms

• hol, holle, hul, hule, ule, hulle, ulle, hoile, huole

Descendants

• English: hull
• Scots: huil

References

• “hol(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 4

Verb

hole

1. past participle of helen (“to cover”)

   Synonym: heled

Alternative forms

• holn

Etymology 5

Adjective

hole

1. Alternative form of hol (“hollow”)

Etymology 6

Noun

hole (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of oile (“oil”)

Etymology 7

Noun

hole (plural holen)

1. Alternative form of oule (“owl”)

Etymology 8

Adjective

hole

1. Alternative form of holy (“holy”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse hola

Noun

hole f or m (definite singular hola or holen, indefinite plural holer, definite plural holene)

1. alternative form of hule

References

• “hole” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• hòle

Etymology

From Old Norse hola

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²ho?l?/

Noun

hole f (definite singular hola, indefinite plural holer, definite plural holene)

1. a cave
2. a cavity (anatomy)
3. a den

Derived terms

• augehole

References

• “hole” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Middle High German holen, from Old High German holon, from Proto-Germanic *hul?n? (“to fetch”). Compare German holen, Dutch halen. Related to English haul.

Verb

hole

1. to fetch

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??ole]

Noun

hole f

1. genitive singular of ho?a

Sotho

Noun

hole 17 (uncountable)

1. far away