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cracker

[ krak-er ]
/ ˈkræk ər /
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See synonyms for: cracker / crackers on Thesaurus.com

noun
adjective
crack·ers, Informal. wild; crazy: They went crackers over the new styles.
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Origin of cracker

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English craker; see crack, -er1; defs. 4, 5 were perhaps originally in sense “braggart,” applied to frontiersmen of the southern American colonies in the 1760s, though subsequently given other interpretations (cf. corn-cracker); for def. 11 crackers “crazy,” cf. cracked, -ers

usage note for cracker

The term cracker is used as a neutral nickname by inhabitants of Georgia and Florida; it is a positive term of self-reference. But when the nickname is used by outsiders, it is usually with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting by Georgians and Floridians. Cracker is always disparaging and offensive when used to refer to a poor white person in the South; the word in this sense often implies that the person is regarded as ignorant or uneducated. When used by Black people, cracker can refer to a Southern white racist, not necessarily poor or rural. See also Cracker State.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use cracker in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for cracker

cracker
/ (ˈkrækə) /

noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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