crackling
Americannoun
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cracklings
plural
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the making of slight cracking sounds rapidly repeated.
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the crisp browned skin or rind of roast pork.
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Southern U.S. Usually cracklings. the crisp residue left when fat, especially hog or chicken fat, is rendered.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of crackling
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Skies over Le Porge turned orange as smoke rose from charred and crackling pine trees, while helicopters made repeated runs over deserted neighbourhoods.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Flames roared through crackling pine trees on Thursday as a wildfire gained ground on the coast of southwestern France, forcing more than 20,000 tourists and residents to flee to safety.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Don’t be afraid of any crackling; cumin seeds should sizzle when fried.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
Yet today it reads like a crackling radio dispatch from a quaint age.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
Cannons and musket fire seemed to be crackling on both sides of him.
From I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis
These act as bases for such dishes as Puerto Rican mofongo, made with plantains mashed with pork cracklings, as well as Cuban yuca with mojo, a citrus and garlic sauce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Jaíne again turns to her native country of Brazil, making plantain gnocchi, pan-fried in duck fat with cracklings and orange sauce.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2022
There are fried sardines, fried pork cracklings, pickled eggs, gizzards and stews made from cow’s feet and oxtail.
From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2021
It needed more than citrus jam and limp, chicken-skin cracklings to make it interesting.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 20, 2018
From time to time Ma skimmed out the brown cracklings.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
