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crack a smile

Idioms

Smile, as in Betty was a very serious person; she rarely cracked a smile. This colloquialism transfers crack in the sense of “break” to breaking a serious facial expression into a smile.

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:

crack a smile

Bob Mortimer's efforts to make his rival comedians crack a smile while he kept a straight face in Last One Laughing earned him the Bafta for best entertainment performance.

From BBC ● May 10, 2026

His sprightly text, ably translated from the French by Arielle Aaronson, may crack a smile on even the most stone-faced among us.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

Milley didn't crack a smile all night, even when Biden came over to glad-hand after his speech.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2023

For 1 hour 49 minutes, Eldridge does not crack a smile.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2023

I had to crack a smile for the hundreds of reporters taking pictures.

From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023