cracker 
It would not be easy to convince a Mohammedan of 
Algiers. H Christian of Rome, or a erarkcr of Mississippi. 
X. A. 7feo.,CXXVII. 485. 
crack-hempt (krak'hemp), n. [< crack, v., + 
obj. hemp.] One destined to stretch a rope 
that is, one who deserves to be hanged ; a wretch 
fated to the gallows. Also called crackrope. 
Come hither, crack-hemn. . . . Come hither, you rogue. 
Shak., T. of the S., v. 1. 
a breaking or snapping. 
Ther was gret noise and crakkyngr of speres, and many 
on the sleeve by members of St. John's College, 
er was gre nose an c , Cambridge, England. 
oon throwe to grounde bothe horse and man, and that cracknel (krak nel), n. [< MK crakenelle, an al- 
dnred longe. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 248. teration of F. craqueliu, < D. krakeling = MLG. 
krackelinge, a cake, cracknel (= E. crackling), < 
kraken, crack : see crack, u.] 1. A small, brittle 
1326 cradle 
Small, busy flames play through the fresh-laid coals, tern or government referred to, as aristocrat, democrat, 
An. 1 their faint .rrarlrling* o'er our silence creep. bureaverat, etc. r s in* j; ?/ 
Keats, TO my Brothers, cradle (kra dl), . [< ME. cradel, cradil, crc- 
del, < AS. cradol, cradel, cradul, a cradle, < Ir. 
craidhal = Gael, creatliall, a cradle, a grate (cf. 
W. cryd, a cradle); akin to L. crafts, a hurdle 
(> E. crate and ult. grate* and grill 1 ), and to E. 
hurdle: see crate, grate 2 , grilfl, hurdle.] 1. A 
little bed or cot for an infant, usually mounted 
balanced or suspended in such 
as to admit of a rocking or swinging 
motion. 
A sciuyer hym [the child] bar in a litill cradell, hym be- 
fore, vpon his horse nekke. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 298. 
No sooner was I crept out of my cradle 
2. The browned skin of roast pig. 
For the first time in his life (in the world's life indeed) 
he tasted crackling. Lamb, Roast Pig. 
3. pi. In the United States, the crisp residue 
of hogs' fat after the lard has been tried out. 
Bartlett. 4. In Great Britain, a kind of cake 
2t. A more or less loud sound of breaking or 
snapping ; a resounding noise. 
Then the first core come with crakkyny of trumpes. 
Sir Gawaync and the Green Knit/hi (E. E. T. S.), 1. 116. 
crackle (krak'l), r. ; pret. and pp. crackled, ppr. 
crackling. [< ME. crakelen, crackle, quaver in 
singing, = MLG. krukelen, make a loud cry, 
cackle; freq. of crack, r.] I. intrans. 1. To 
make slight cracks, or sudden sharp, explosive 
noises, rapidly or frequently repeated ; crepi- 
tate : as, burning thorns crackle. 
Had I a Wreath of Bays about my Brow, 
I should contemn that flourishing Honour now, 
Condemn it to the Fire, and joy to hear 
It Rage and Crackle there. 
Covley, Death of Mr. Win. Harvey, st. 9. 
A thousand villages to ashes turns, 
In crackling flames a thousand harvests burns. 
Addison, The Campaign. 
fancy biscuit shaped in a dish ; a hard, brittle 
cake or biscuit. 
Whan the plate is hote, they cast of the thyn paste 
thereon, and so make a lytle cake in maner of a crakenell, 
or bysket. Berners, tr. of Froissarfs Chron., I. xvii. 
Take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of 
honey. 1 Ki. xiv. 3. 
2. pi. Small bits of fat pork fried crisp. 
Cracknel bread, bread in which pork cracknels are 
mixed : a luxury among the negroes of the southern United 
States. Also called tjaody-bread. [V. S.] 
crack-ropet (krak'rop), re. [< crack, v., + obj. 
rope.] Same as crack-hemp. 
Away, you crack-ropes, are you fighting at the court 
gate? K. JSdwarde, Damon and Pythias. 
Ha ! ha ! you do not know the mystery ; this lady is a 
boy, a very crackrope boy. Shirley, Love in a Maze, iv. 3. 
But I was made a king, at nine months old. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., iv. 9. 
This child is not mine as the first was ; . . . 
Yet it lies in my little one's cradle, 
And sits in my little one's chair. 
Lowell, The Changeling. 
Hence 2. The place where any person or 
thing is nurtured in the earlier stage of exis- 
tence : as, Asia, the cradle of the human race ; 
the cradle of liberty, etc. 3. A standing bed- 
stead for wounded seamen. 4. A name of vari- 
ous mechanical contrivances, (a) That part of the 
stock of a crossbow where the missile is put. (6) In surg. : 
(1) A case in which a broken leg 'is laid after being set. 
(2) A semicircular case of thin wood, or strips of wood, 
used for preventing the contact of the bedclothes with the 
injured part, in cases of wounds, fractures, etc. (c) In 
ghip-buifaing, a frame placed under the bottom of a ship 
for launching. It supports the ship, and slides down the 
timbers or passage called the ways, (d) A frame placed 
under the bottom of a ship to support her while being 
tones 
multaneously. See arpeggio. 
II. trans. To cover with a network of minute 
cracks, as porcelain or glass. 
Some of it [Chinese porcelain] is crackled, not acciden- 
tally, but by a careful process. Encyc. Brit., XIX. 634. 
crackle (krak'l), . [(crackle, .] 1. One of a 
series of small, sharp, quickly repeated noises, 
such as are made by a burning fire ; crackling. 
From the same walls Savonarola went forth to his tri- 
umphs, short-lived almost as the crackle of his martyr- 
dom. Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 2. 
2. A small crack; specifically, a network of 
cracks characterizing the surface-glaze of some 
Whom can I herd with? Cracksmen and pickpockets. 
Bulwer, What will he Do with it? vii. 5. 
crack-tryst (krak'tnst), w. [< crack, v., + obj. 
tryst.] One who fails to keep his engagements 
or trysts. [Scotch.] 
cracky (krak'i), a. [So., < crack, v., + -y 1 .] 
1. Talkative: often used to express the loqua- 
city of a person in liquor. 
Dryster Jock was sitting cracky, 
Wi' Pate Tamson o' the Hill. 
A. Wilion, Poems, p. 3. 
2. Affable ; agreeable in conversation. 
A brush sithe' [scythe] and grass sithe, with rifle to stand, 
A cradle for barlie, with rubstone and sand. 
Turner, Husbandrie, p. 37. 
(g) In arch., a centering of ribs latticed with spars, used 
for building culverts and other arches, (h) A large wooden 
frame in which a canal-boat or barge may be floated in 
order to be raised or lowered by pulleys, without the aid 
of the usual locks, (i) In mining : (I) In gold-mining, a 
machine for separating gold from auriferous gravel or 
the glaze, and is produced artificially by causing the glaze 
to shrink more than the body of the ware : as, a fine 
crackle showing purple lines ; a coarse crackle with black 
lines, etc. Some of the most delicate crackles are said to 
be produced by the heat of the sun, to which the newly 
applied glaze is exposed ; dry color is then rubbed over 
kinds of porcelain and fine pottery, it penetrates Cracovian (kra-ko'vi-an), a. andn. [< Cracow 
-, -'--- - - > * j i t!*rii..i i. +1 !.,, -f -ian, after r. Cracovien.] 1. a. Ol or be- 
longing to the city of Cracow, capital of Poland 
for several centuries, now in the province of 
Galicia. Cracovian catechism. See catechism, 2. 
_ , - II. H. A person belonging to Cracow. 
the piece, filling up the cracks, and the piece is afterward Cracovienne (kra-ko-vi-en'), n. [F., fern, of 
me( 'i_i T.- ,1 1/1 i.-// -\ Craeovien, Cracovian.] 1. A Polish dance of 
rackle-chma (krak'l-chi"na), n. Same as ^ acelu i ^ nd fanciful character, somewhat like 
the mazurka. 2. Music written for or in imi- 
tation of the movement of such a dance, in du- 
ple rhythm with frequent syncopations. 
cracowt (krak'6), n. [ME. cracowes, crakowis; 
so called from Cracow in Poland ; G. Krakau, 
Pol. Krakov.] A long-toed boot 
or shoe introduced into Eng- 
land in the reign of Bichard 
II., and named from the city 
of Cracow. Also called, from the 
name Poland, pollynt. For the same 
form used in armor, see pollyns and 
itoUeret. 
Cracticus (krak'ti-kus), n. 
[NL., < Gr. KpaicrueAf, noisy, < 
Kpd&tv, croak, scream, shriek. 
Cf. crake' 2 and Crax.] A genus 
of shrikes peculiar to the Aus- 
tralian and Papuan islands, 
having as its type C. robusttts or 
C. personatus. See Sarita and 
Vanga. Vieillot, 1816. 
-cracy. [= F. -cratie, < L. 
-cratia, (. Gr. -Kparia (in comp. 
dpiaTo-Kparia, aristocracy, <5;/io- 
Kparia, democracy, etc.), with 
adj. in -Kparmof (L. -craticus. 
F. -cratique, E. -cratie, whence mod. nouns in F. 
-crate, E. -crat as in aristocrat, democrat, etc.), 
< Kparciv, rule, < Kparvf, strong, hard, = E. hard, 
q. v.] An element in some words of Greek 
origin, meaning 'government,' 'rule,' as in aris- 
tocracy, democracy, theocracy, etc. : also used 
as an English formative with the preceding 
vowel -o-, as in mobocracy, or without it, as in 
bureaucracy (French bureaucratic). The accom 
crackle 
crackle-porcelain. 
crackled (krak 'Id), a. [< crackle + -ed%.] 
Covered with a network of small cracks: as, 
crackled porcelain or glass. 
The soft creamy-looking crackled glaze adds an addi- 
tional charm. Encyc. Brit., XIII. 690. 
Crackled ware, porcelain or faience decorated with 
crackle. 
crackle-glass (krak'1-glas), n. An ornamented 
glass made by plunging a mass attached to the 
end of a blowpipe, while at a glowing red heat, 
into hot water, and then opening and blowing 
it out. Its surface is filled with minute cracks, so that it 
resembles a mass of thawing ice, and is beautifully pellu- 
cid. Also called ice-'jlaxa. 
crackle-porcelain (krak'l-pors"lan), n. A va- 
riety of ceramic ware in which the enamel is 
covered with fine cracks ; crackled ware. See 
crackle, n., 2. In Chinese ware the crackled effect Is 
restricted to certain portions of the glaze, leaving the 
remaining portions plain, thus producing ornamental ef- 
fects. Also called crackle-china, crackle-ware, and cracklin. 
crackless (krak'les), a. [< crack + -less.] 
Without crack, seam, or opening. 
Behind was a solid blackness a cracklens bank of it. 
S. L. Clemens, Life on Mississippi, p. 571. 
crackle-ware (krak'1-war), . Same as crackle- 
porcelain. 
cracklin (krak'lin), . [For crackling.] Same 
as era cklf -porcelain. 
crackling (krak'ling), H. [Verbal n. of crackle, 
v. Cf. D. krakeling = MLG. krackelinge, a cake, 
cracknel: see cracknel.] 1. The making or 
emitting of small, abrupt, frequently repeated 
cracks or reports. 
The crackling of thorns under a pot. Eccl. vii. 6. 
The blaze of papers, the melting of seals, and crackling 
of parchments, made a very odd scene. 
Addison, Vision of Justice. 
Cracows, from the 
Harleian MSS. 
Mining-Cradle. 
sand. It resembles in form a child's cradle, and, like it, 
has rockers; hence also called a rocker, and sometimes a 
cradle-rocker. This apparatus for washing gold is next in 
simplicity to the pan. It was extensively used in Cali- 
fornia and Australia in the early days of gold-washing, but, 
except among Chinese miners, it has now almost entirely 
disappeared, its place having been taken first by the torn, 
and later by the sluice. (2) A suspended scaffold used in 
shafts. (J) In carp., the rough framework or bracketing 
which forms ribbing for vaulted ceilings and arches in- 
tended to be covered with plaster. (A-) In life-saving ap- 
paratus, a basket or car running on a line, in which persons 
are transferred from a wreck to the shore. (0 A chock 
used for supporting boats on board ship, (wi) In hat-mak- 
ing a circular iron frame with pegs projecting inward, on 
which hats are hung and lowered into the dye-vessel to 
be colored. 
5. An old game played by children: same as 
caffs-cradle Armor-plate cradle. See armor-plate. 
Cone-and-cradle mill. See mill. Cradle printing- 
machine, a printing-machine in which the cylinder has 
only a half-revolution, which gives it a rocking or cradle- 
like motion. lEng.] Known in America as the oycillitltii'i 
niiicliine. 
panying adjective is in -cratie, -cratical, whence the noun Cradle (kra'dl), r.; pret, and pp. cradled, ppr. 
in -crat, signifying one who represents or favors the sys- cradling. [< cradle, .] I. trans. 1. lo place 
