Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use cracking in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, adverb

Cracking means the thermal decomposition of a substance, especially that of crude petroleum in order to produce petrol / gasoline. Example: “The race started at a cracking pace.”

Examples of cracking by meaning

nounThe production of a crack sound.

  • the crackings of whips

adjectiveGreat; excellent.

  • The race started at a cracking pace.
  • That's a cracking example of what we've been looking for.

adjectiveEnjoyable.

  • We had a cracking time.
  • I've heard some cracking tunes on it."2020 December 30, Richard Clinnick, “Greater Anglia strikes again...”, in Rail, page 43

adverbVery, usually associated with praise.

  • It was a cracking good show.

More sentences with cracking

  • Did you hear about Josh cracking Stacy in the school hall?From the entry crack
  • Those who have been cracking up the agricultural industry will hopefully reconsider their denigration of it.From the entry crack up
  • If I'm going to finish my homework by Thursday, I'd better get cracking.From the entry get cracking
  • It was hilarious. We were cracking up the whole time.From the entry crack up
  • Our uncle is always being a jokester and cracking jokes about how much he eats and makes messes.From the entry jokester
  • Look over there. That kid is cracking out.From the entry crack out
  • He was cracking off about that hat.From the entry crack off
  • The project is really cracking on.From the entry crack on
  • He has the factory cracking along.From the entry crack along
  • Repeated high loading had caused fatigue cracks to grow, resulting in what is called gauge corner cracking.2026 March 18, Peter Plisner, “Tackling broken rails: the skills and technology improving safety”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 30. From the entry fragment
  • Maybe there's one person cracking all the jokes, while another's calling the shots.2024 June 1, Logan Mind, Emotional Intelligence for Social Success: Enhance Your Relationship Skills. Practical Strategies to Communicate…. From the entry who's who in the zoo
  • It took an international collaboration to begin cracking Tears of the Kingdom open.2023 June 6, Lewos Gordon, “Tears of the Kingdom glitch hunters aren’t just breaking the game — they’re expanding it”, in The Verge…. From the entry glitch hunter
  • Now that system is cracking, and so is this icon of millennial hustle.2021, Leigh Stein, quoted in Arwa Mahdawi, Strong Female Lead: Lessons from Women in Power, unnumbered page. From the entry girlboss
  • I could almost hear the wry grins cracking their faces as the officers peacocked.2014 May 30, Will Butler, “The Mark of Cane”, in The New York Times Magazine. From the entry peacock
  • I feel like cracking this stout and just mossing in the sun with a splif.2014 August 29, @7oneZ_FuckTDSB, Twitter. From the entry moss
  • Cracking excuse: credible, watertight and yet patently a load of old tut.2012, M.T. Maguire, The Wrong Stuff: K'Barthan Series: Part 2. From the entry tut
  • Rodier answered the phone on its first ring, his normally deep, actorlike voice cracking with excitement.2012, M. L. Longworth, Murder in the Rue Dumas: A Verlaque and Bonnet Mystery, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry actorlike
  • End-of-pier comedians and working-class comics preferred to get laughs by cracking jokes about darkies and sambos.2003, Sukhdev Sandhu, London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City, HarperCollins, page 227. From the entry end-of-pier
  • And I was talking smack, cracking jokes, playing with Mateo the host.2001, Mark Rackers, Nesting, page 185. From the entry talk smack
  • A butcherblock counter must be kept dry and well sealed to avoid cracking.1998, Dean Johnson, Kitchens: How to, →ISBN. From the entry butcherblock
  • Nobody really knows how much actual damage cracking does to the software companies.1997 April 1, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired, →ISSN. From the entry crack
  • He kept on cracking his whip, and calling out, "Gee-up, my five horses!"1996, Andrew Lang, The Yellow Fairy Book, Big Klaus and Little Klaus,, →ISBN. From the entry gee up
  • They were all cracking it on the street and I worked in a knock shop.1991, Jan Jordan, Working girls. From the entry knock shop
  • A thicker back will bend less, and be less prone to overbow and the resultant cracking.1986, Folk Harp Journal - Issues 52-55, page 22. From the entry overbow
  • Fatigue or cracking due to cyclic loading of the overplate is influenced by its thickness.1981, Diesel Progress North American - Volume 47, page 34. From the entry overplate
  • No use, with a bloke like this, cracking up your own merits.1939 June, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter IX, in Coming Up for Air, London: Martin Secker & Warburg, published 1948…. From the entry bloke
  • I am afraid that the knowing author of the “cracking a-crib” book would be flummoxed by tweedling.1925, Eustace Jervis, Twenty-five Years in Six Prisons, page 17. From the entry tweedle
  • Why don't you stop cracking wise, and go back to the ribbon counter?"1917, George Bronson-Howard, Slaves of the Lamp. From the entry crack wise
  • I draw on the vapor pen and within minutes the medicine has us care-free, pain-free, and relaxed, laughing and cracking jokes.2018, Aalia Lanius, Tough Love. From the entry vapor pen
  • And he and Necro start cracking up!2012 October 9, Bill Peters, “NecronicA”, in Maverick Jetpants in the City of Quality, New York, N.Y.: Black Balloon Publishing, →ISBN…. From the entry serial-killer glasses
  • Without the protection of the topcoat, your wood constantly expands and contracts and is more susceptible to warping and cracking.2011, Jeff Strong, Woodworking For Dummies, unnumbered page. From the entry topcoat
  • But it was futile to continue cracking down.2009, Kevin J. Anderson, The Ashes of Worlds. From the entry crack down
  • The fleet has tankers for water purification and oxygen cracking, but the space-intensive nature of agriculture limits food production.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians: Economy Codex entry. From the entry hand-to-mouth
  • Martempering also reduces or eliminates susceptibility to cracking.2008, “Chapter 11: Heat Treatment of Steel”, in Flake C. Campbell, editor, Elements of Metallurgy and Engineering Alloys, ASM…. From the entry martempering

Meaning of cracking

  1. noun The thermal decomposition of a substance, especially that of crude petroleum in order to produce petrol / gasoline.
  2. noun The formation of cracks on a surface.
  3. noun The production of a crack sound.

Full definition of cracking

Questions about cracking in a sentence

How do you use cracking in a sentence?
Cracking is used as a noun, adjective and adverb. For example: “The race started at a cracking pace.”
What is a short sentence with cracking?
“the crackings of whips”
What does cracking mean?
Cracking means the thermal decomposition of a substance, especially that of crude petroleum in order to produce petrol / gasoline.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cracking (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use cracking in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cracking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.