Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

(Amelia) #1

crackpot 1. n. a fake; a person with strange
or crazy plans. Some crackpot called to
tell us that the sky is falling in. I’m no
crackpot! I saw some of the sky f loating in
the lake. If it had fallen on land, someone
might have been killed. 2. mod. having to
do with crazy things, mainly ideas. We
need a crackpot idea around here just so
we’ll have something to compare your
ideas to. Why not start a crackpot idea
contest?


crack someone uptv. to make someone
laugh. She giggled, and that cracked us
all up.TThe lecturer would talk along
sort of boring like, and then all of a sud-
den he would crack up everybody with a
joke.


crack some sudstv. to drink some beer. 
Let’s go out tonight and crack some suds.
The guys wanted to watch the game and
crack some suds.


crack up 1. in. to have a wreck. The
plane cracked up and killed two of the pas-
sengers. Whose car cracked up on the ex-
pressway? 2. in. to break out in laughter.
The whole audience cracked up. 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. You would crack up, too,
if you had been through all he went
through. 4. n. an accident; a wreck. (Usu-
ally crack-up.) There was a terrible
crack-up on the expressway. There were
four cars in the crack-up.


cramin. to study hard at the last minute for
a test. She spent the night cramming for
the test. If you would study all the time,
you wouldn’t need to cram.


crank 1. n. a crackpot;a bothersome per-
son with a bogus message. A crank
called with a bomb threat. A crank came
in and offered to punch me in the nose for
a quarter. 2. mod. bogus. We had four
crank calls threatening to blow up the Eif-
fel tower. A crank letter promised us a
million dollars if we would play “My Blue
Heaven” for two hours each morning. 3. n.
a crabby person. (Collegiate.) Why are
you such a crank? Is something wrong in


your life? The prof is such a crank; he
jokes only about once a semester.
crank bugsn. a drug-induced hallucina-
tion that insects are crawling under one’s
skin. (Drugs.) I have crank bugs, and
I’m cartooning, too. There’s no such
thing as crank bugs, so stop scratching
them.
crankingmod. exciting; excellent. This
record is really cranking! We had a mas-
sively cranking time at your set.
crank something outtv. to produce some-
thing; to make a lot of something. She
can crank mystery novels out like fury.
They’re all good, too. TThat man does
nothing but crank out trouble.
crank something up 1. tv. to start some-
thing up. I’ll go out and crank the car
up so it can warm up. TCrank up the
copying machine. We’ve got a big job to do.


  1. tv. to increase the volume of an elec-
    tronic device. He cranked it up a little
    more and CRACK, there went both speak-
    ers! TKelly cranked up his stereo until we
    were nearly deafened.
    crankymod. irritable; fretful. Don’t be
    cranky. We’re almost there. Max is
    cranky today. The fuzz is on his tail.
    crap 1. n. dung; feces. (Often used as a
    milder replacement for shit. Usually ob-
    jectionable.) There’s dog crap on my
    lawn! Don’t step in that crap! 2. in. to
    defecate. (Usually objectionable.) Yo u r
    dog crapped on my lawn! I have to crap;
    then I’ll be right with you. 3. n. nonsense;
    lies. (See also BS.) Stop talking crap
    and get serious! 4. n. junk; shoddy mer-
    chandise. Send this crap back. I won’t
    pay for it! This thing is just crap! It
    hasn’t worked right since I bought it.
    craphousen. a privy. (Usually objection-
    able.) Wally’s out in the craphouse read-
    ing, I guess. Where’s the craphouse that
    used to be out there?
    crap-listGo to shit-list.
    crap outin. to evade something; to chicken
    out (of something). Now, don’t crap
    out on me at the last minute. Fred
    crapped out, so there are only three of us.


crackpot

Free download pdf