[f. CRACK v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb CRACK.
1. The emission of a sharp sound as in the act of breaking or bursting, or the noise so emitted.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 452/114. Þoruȝ noyse of þe crakeȝingue þe guode man i-heorde: þat þut treo fel.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 116. Þe first cors come with crakkyng of trumpes.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXI. 8720. Wryngyng of hondes, Clamur & crie, crakkyng of fyngurs.
1535. Coverdale, Eccl. vii. 6. The laughinge of fooles is like ye crackynge of thornes vnder a pott.
1658. Evelyn, Diary (1827), IV. 203. Eeles do … stir at the cracking of thunder.
1817. T. L. Peacock, Melincourt, xxxviii. The cracking of whips.
1885. Manch. Exam., 23 June, 5/3. The cracking of rifles was … heard.
† 2. Exaggerated talking, bragging, boasting. Obs. or dial.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 100. Crakynge, or boste, jactancia, arrogancia.
1462. Paston Lett., No. 452, II. 103. Hys gret crakyng and bost.
1564. Rastell, Confut. Jewell’s Serm., 34 b. So much crakyng, so litle performyng.
1655. Capel, Tentations, 62. The Cracking of a coward before he loseth the Victory.
1692. Christ Exalted, § 147. Let us learn to know our selves … without any cracking.
3. The breaking of anything hard and hollow; bursting or fissuring; partially fracturing.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5852. Crakkyng of cristis, crusshyng of speiris.
1483. Cath. Angl., 80. A Crakkynge, nucliacio.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, xxviii. 130. When they [reindeer] walk, the joints of their feet make a noise like the clashing of flints, or cracking of nuts.
1735. J. Price, Stone-Br. Thames, 5. Keep the whole Frame compacted together from any cracking or opening.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), p. xcii. They … can sustain sudden alternations of heat and cold without cracking.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 54. Cracking of craniums was the rage.
4. Damaging (of credit, reputation, etc.); a flaw.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxv. (1617), 417. A cracking of his credit.
1633. Ames, Agst. Cerem., Pref. 9. Even the courses of the strictest saynts have ther crackings: Peter was a good man, and yet dissembled.
5. attrib.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., viii. 192. Larger pebbles, very likely used as cracking-stones, are found in early European graves.
