1
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Phrase(s): crack someone or something up
to damage someone or something. (See also crack someone up.) • Who cracked my car up? • Who cracked up my car? Who was driving? • The accident cracked him up a little., Phrase(s): crack up
1. to have a wreck. • The plane cracked up and killed two of the passengers. • Whose car cracked up on the expressway? 2. to break out in laughter. • The whole audience cracked up. • I knew I would crack up during the love scene. 3. Sl. to have a mental or emotional breakdown. • The poor guy cracked up. It was too much for him. • You would crack up, too, if you had been through all he went through. 4. an accident; a wreck. (Usually crack-up.) • There was a terrible crack-up on the expressway. • There were four cars in the crack-up., Phrase(s): crack something up
to crash something; to destroy something (in an accident). • The driver cracked the car up in an accident. • The pilot cracked up the plane., Phrase(s): crack someone up
to make someone laugh very hard; to make someone break out laughing. • You and your jokes really crack me up. • That comedian really knows how to crack up an audience.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
1. Suffer an emotional breakdown, become insane, as in He might crack up under the strain. This usage alludes to the result of cracking one's skull; from the early 1600s to crack alone was used in this way. [Slang; early 1900s] 2. Damage or wreck a vehicle or vessel. For example, I'm always afraid that I'll crack up the car. 3. Experience a crash, as in We cracked up on the freeway in the middle of the ice storm. 4. Also, crack someone up. Burst or cause to burst out laughing, as in The audience cracked up, or That joke really cracked me up. [Slang; c. 1940] Also see BREAK UP, def. 6. All of these expressions derive from crack in the sense of "break into pieces" or "collapse," a usage dating from the late 1600s. Also see CRACKED UP.
American Heritage Idioms