different between dash vs crack

English

Etymology

From Middle English daschen, dassen, from Danish daske (“to slap, strike”), related to Swedish daska (“to smack, slap, spank”), of obscure origin. Compare German tatschen (“to grope, paw”), Old English dw?s?an (“to quell, put out, destroy, extinguish”). See also adwesch, dush.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

dash (plural dashes)

1. (typography) Any of the following symbols: ? (figure dash), – (en dash), — (em dash), or ? (horizontal bar).
   1. (computing) A hyphen or minus sign.
2. (by extension) The longer of the two symbols of Morse code.
3. A short run, flight.

4. A rushing or violent onset.
5. Violent strike; a whack.

6. A small quantity of a liquid substance etc.; less than 1/8 of a teaspoon.

   Add a dash of vinegar.

7. (figuratively, by extension) A slight admixture.

   There is a dash of craziness in his personality.

8. Ostentatious vigor.

   Aren't we full of dash this morning?

9. A dashboard.
   • 1955, Rex Stout, "The Next Witness", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ?ISBN, page 31:

     The dash clock said 2:38 when […] I turned off a dirt road […] .

10. (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia) A bribe or gratuity; a gift.
    • 1992, George B. N. Ayittey, Africa betrayed (page 44)

      The traditional practice of offering gifts or "dash" to chiefs has often been misinterpreted by scholars to provide a cultural explanation for the pervasive incidence of bribery and corruption in modern Africa.

    • 2006, Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 (page 99)

      Writing in 1924 on a similar situation in Ugep, the political officer, Mr. S. T. Harvey noted: "In the old days there was no specified dowry but merely dashes given to the father-in-law […]

    • 2008, Lizzie Williams, Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide (page 84)

      The only other times you'll be asked for a dash is from beggars.

11. (dated, euphemistic) A stand-in for a censored word, like "Devil" or "damn". (Compare deuce.)
    • 1853, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, Chapter VI, serialized in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, (VIII, no. 43, Dec 1853) p. 118

      Sir Thomas looks as if to ask what the dash is that to you! but wanting still to go to India again, and knowing how strong the Newcomes are in Leadenhall Street, he thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub, and swallows his pride once more into his waistband.

      Comment: Some editions leave this passage out. Of those that include it, some change the 'you!' to 'you?'.

    • 1884, Lord Robert Gower, My Reminiscences, reprinted in "The Evening Lamp", The Christian Union, (29) 22, (May 29, 1884) p. 524

      Who the dash is this person whom none of us know? and what the dash does he do here?

Hypernyms

• punctuation mark

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:dash

Derived terms

• dashing
• (typography): em dash, en dash
• (dashboard): dashcam, dash cam

Translations

See also

Punctuation

Verb

dash (third-person singular simple present dashes, present participle dashing, simple past and past participle dashed)

1. (intransitive) To run quickly or for a short distance.
2. (intransitive, informal) To leave or depart.

   I have to dash now. See you soon.

3. (transitive) To destroy by striking (against).

   He dashed the bottle against the bar and turned about to fight.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     "`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out before your very eyes.'

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 4

     Kala was the youngest mate of a male called Tublat, meaning broken nose, and the child she had seen dashed to death was her first; for she was but nine or ten years old.

4. (transitive) To throw violently.

   The man was dashed from the vehicle during the accident.

   • If you dash a stone against a stone in the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound.

5. (transitive, intransitive, sometimes figuratively) To sprinkle; to splatter.

   • On each hand the gushing waters play, / And down the rough cascade white-dashing fall.

   • The very source and fount of day / Is dash'd with wandering isles of night.
6. (transitive, dated) To mix, reduce, or adulterate, by throwing in something of an inferior quality.

   to dash wine with water

7. (transitive, of hopes or dreams) To ruin; to destroy.

   Her hopes were dashed when she saw the damage.
8. (transitive) To dishearten; to sadden.

   Her thoughts were dashed to melancholy.

9. (transitive) To complete hastily, usually with down or off.

   He dashed down his eggs, she dashed off her homework

10. (transitive) To draw or write quickly; jot.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

      "Scarborough," Mrs. Flanders wrote on the envelope, and dashed a bold line beneath; it was her native town; the hub of the universe.

    • 2003, Robert Andrews, A Murder of Promise (page 198)

      Going out the door, he grabbed a windbreaker and dashed a note to his father and left it on the entry table.

Derived terms

• dash off
• gas and dash

Translations

Interjection

dash

1. (euphemistic) Damn!

Translations

See also

• hyphen
• minus sign

Anagrams

• ADHs, SAHD, Sadh, dahs, shad

Albanian

Etymology

Disputed. Potentially from Proto-Albanian *dauša, from Proto-Indo-European *d?eusóm (compare English deer, Lithuanian da?sos (“upper air; heaven”)). Alternatively from Proto-Albanian *dalša, from Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?-l- (compare Ossetian ?????? (dalis?, “young lamb”)).

Noun

dash m (indefinite plural desh, definite singular dashi, definite plural deshtë)

1. ram (male sheep)

Derived terms

• Dash
• Dashnor

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English dash

Noun

dash m (definite singular dashen, indefinite plural dasher, definite plural dashene)

1. a dash (small amount)
2. short for dashbord.

References

• “dash” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English dash

Noun

dash m (definite singular dashen, indefinite plural dashar, definite plural dashane)

1. a dash (small amount)
2. short for dashbord.

References

• “dash” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Ojibwe

Alternative forms

• idash
• -sh

Adverb

dash

1. and, and then, then

2. but

Usage notes

dash comes in the second position in a clause, indicating that one thing happened after another. It can also have a contrastive meaning and then may be translated with but.

Derived terms

• aaniin dash (“why?”)
• mii dash (“and then”)

See also

• aanawi (“although, but”)
• apii (“then”)
• gaye (“as for, also”)
• miinawaa (“and again”)

References

• The Ojibwe People's Dictionary https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/main-entry/dash-adv-conj

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.