crackerjack
Americannoun
adjective
adjective
noun
Etymology
Origin of crackerjack
1890–95, earlier crackajack, rhyming compound based on crack (adjective); -a- as in blackamoor ( def. ); jack 1 ( def. ) in sense “fellow, buddy”
Explanation
Someone who's a crackerjack is really good at what they do. A crackerjack of a magician will amaze you with every trick she performs. You can use the word crackerjack for any excellent thing or person — you might say, for example, that your new car is a crackerjack or compliment your friend on her crackerjack of a performance at the school talent show. Crackerjack is an informal word that can be a noun or an adjective — and it's also the name of the caramel-covered popcorn and nuts you might buy at a baseball game.
Vocabulary lists containing crackerjack
Hick
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The Corruption of Hollis Brown
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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.
For 35 years, Cruise’s super spy Ethan Hunt and his rotating, crackerjack team of rogue agents have been saving the world from annihilation time and time again, skirting death by a hair each time.
From Salon • May 24, 2025
Above all else, Winkler is a crackerjack researcher, deftly laying out the myriad questions, arguments and mysteries swirling around Shakespeare.
From Washington Post • Apr. 21, 2023
Besides, Washington Times columnist Michael McKenna did a crackerjack piece last Thursday, “Who is the real threat to democracy?”
From Washington Times • Sep. 5, 2022
It’s a jaw-dropping moment — even the generally unflappable Grozev covers his face in exhilaration and disbelief — in a documentary that moves with the swiftness and tension of a crackerjack thriller.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2022
“Kindly invite your network of crackerjack librarians all across this country to organize regional competitions.”
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
