cracknel

[krak-nl]

noun

a hard, brittle cake or biscuit.
cracknels, small bits of fat pork fried crisp.

Origin of cracknel

1350–1400; Middle English crak(e)nele < Middle French *craquenelle, metathetic alteration of craquelin < Middle Dutch crākelinc, equivalent to crāke(n) to crack + -linc -ling¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cracknel

Historical Examples of cracknel

This is done to rid it of any bits of cracknel, etc., that may remain in the lard.
Home Pork Making
A. W. Fulton
A Cracknel is our gain, but the ditty must first (come) out.
Notes and Queries, Number 63, January 11, 1851
Various
The result—he lost by half a cracknel—was to cause him some temporary inconvenience, but he is now completely restored to health.
Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 109, September 21, 1895
Various
After being pressed the cracknels are worked into a dough with corn meal and together made into cracknel bread.
Home Pork Making
A. W. Fulton
"Yes, it's 'licious," agreed Joan, with her mouth full of cracknel biscuit.
Two Little Travellers
Frances Browne Arthur

British Dictionary definitions for cracknel

cracknel

noun

a type of hard plain biscuit
(often plural) US and Canadian crisply fried bits of fat pork

Word Origin for cracknel

C15: perhaps from Old French craquelin, from Middle Dutch krākelinc, from krāken to crack

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