crack up
(redirected from crack me up)
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crack up
1. verb To laugh very hard. We all cracked up at Josh's joke.
2. verb To cause someone to laugh very hard. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "crack" and "up." Josh's joke cracked us all up. That comedian just cracks me up.
3. verb To experience a mental or emotional breakdown. All those days of sleep deprivation finally caused me to crack up. She's terrified to leave the house all of a sudden—I think she's cracking up.
4. verb To destroy something. He drove into a tree and cracked up his car.
5. verb To be in an accident. I cracked up after losing control of my car.
6. noun An accident. When used as a noun, the phrase is typically hyphenated. I was in a crack-up when I lost control of my car and hydroplaned.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
crack someone or something up
to damage someone or something. (See also crack someone up.) Who cracked my car up? Who cracked up my car? Who was driving? The accident cracked him up a little.
crack someone up
to make someone laugh very hard; to make someone break out laughing. You and your jokes really crack me up. That comedian really knows how to crack up an audience.
crack something up
to crash something; to destroy something (in an accident). The driver cracked the car up in an accident. The pilot cracked up the plane.
crack up
1. to have a wreck. The plane cracked up and killed two of the passengers. Whose car cracked up on the expressway?
2. to break out in laughter. The whole audience cracked up. I knew I would crack up during the love scene.
3. Sl. to have a mental or emotional breakdown. The poor guy cracked up. It was too much for him. You would crack up, too, if you had been through all he went through.
4. an accident; a wreck. (Usually crack-up.) There was a terrible crack-up on the expressway. There were four cars in the crack-up.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
crack up
1. Suffer an emotional breakdown, become insane, as in He might crack up under the strain. This usage alludes to the result of cracking one's skull; from the early 1600s to crack alone was used in this way. [Slang; early 1900s]
2. Damage or wreck a vehicle or vessel. For example, I'm always afraid that I'll crack up the car.
3. Experience a crash, as in We cracked up on the freeway in the middle of the ice storm.
4. Also, crack someone up. Burst or cause to burst out laughing, as in The audience cracked up, or That joke really cracked me up. [Slang; c. 1940] Also see break up, def. 6. All of these expressions derive from crack in the sense of "break into pieces" or "collapse," a usage dating from the late 1600s. Also see cracked up.
cracked up
1. Past tense of crack up.
2. cracked up to be. Reputed to be. This expression is always used in a negative way, as in I don't think this book is all it's cracked up to be. It relies on the now obsolete use of to crack up to mean "to praise extravagantly." It appeared in The Kentuckian: "He is not the thing he is cracked up for" (May 28, 1829). [Early 1800s]
3. Under the influence of crack (a form of cocaine). For example, "Who's cracked up, who's cracked out, and who's dead?" ( World News Tonight, ABC-TV, May 12, 1992). [1980s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
crack up
v.
1. To damage something or someone, as in an accident: I cracked up the car when I hit a tree. We gave him a remote control plane for his birthday, but he cracked it up on his very first flight.
2. To become damaged or wrecked: The plane cracked up when it hit the ground.
3. To praise someone or something highly, especially incorrectly. Often used in the passive: I am simply not the genius I'm cracked up to be. His friend cracked him up to be a great mechanic, but I thought his work was shoddy.
4. To have a mental or physical breakdown: We were afraid that the pilot might crack up under the stress.
5. To laugh very hard: She cracked up when I told her the joke.
6. To cause someone to laugh very hard: The funny movie cracked us up. The comedian cracked up the audience.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
crack someone up
tv. to make someone laugh. The lecturer would talk along sort of boring like, and then all of a sudden he would crack up everybody with a joke.
crack up
1. in. to have a wreck. The plane cracked up and killed two of the passengers.
2. in. to break out in laughter. I knew I would crack up during the love scene.
3. in. to have a nervous breakdown. The poor guy cracked up. It was too much for him.
4. n. an accident; a wreck. (Usually crack-up.) There was a terrible crack-up on the expressway.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.