Library / English Dictionary

CRACKLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Glazed china with a network of fine cracks on the surface

Synonyms:

crackle; crackle china; crackleware

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("crackle" is a kind of...):

china (high quality porcelain originally made only in China)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The sharp sound of snapping noises

Synonyms:

crackle; crackling; crepitation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("crackle" is a kind of...):

noise (sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crackle"):

decrepitation (the crackling or breaking up of certain crystals when they are heated)

Derivation:

crackle (make a crackling sound)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having the surface decorated with a network of fine cracks, as in crackleware

Example:

a crackle glaze

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

fancy (not plain; decorative or ornamented)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To become, or to cause to become, covered with a network of small cracks

Example:

The blazing sun crackled the desert sand

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "crackle" is one way to...):

alter; change; vary (become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
It is ----ing
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a crushing noise

Example:

his shoes were crunching on the gravel

Synonyms:

crackle; crunch; scranch; scraunch

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "crackle" is one way to...):

make noise; noise; resound (emit a noise)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "crackle"):

crump; scrunch; thud (make a noise typical of an engine lacking lubricants)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make a crackling sound

Example:

My Rice Krispies crackled in the bowl

Synonyms:

crackle; crepitate

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "crackle" is one way to...):

rattle (make short successive sounds)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

crackle; crackling (the sharp sound of snapping noises)

Credits

 Context examples: 

If attached, choose to meet in a restaurant known for delicious food with an atmosphere of flowers, candlelight, perhaps a fireplace with a warm, crackling fire, and crisp white tablecloths. Heaven!

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Abnormal breath sounds (crackles) heard on auscultation only in the bases of the lungs.

(Basilar Rales, NCI Thesaurus)

He swear much, and he red face and loud of voice, but he good fellow all the same; and when Quincey give him something from his pocket which crackle as he roll it up, and put it in a so small bag which he have hid deep in his clothing, he still better fellow and humble servant to us.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As young readers like to know 'how people look', we will take this moment to give them a little sketch of the four sisters, who sat knitting away in the twilight, while the December snow fell quietly without, and the fire crackled cheerfully within.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I trode on an edging of turf that the crackle of the pebbly gravel might not betray me: he was standing among the beds at a yard or two distant from where I had to pass; the moth apparently engaged him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The steak soon began to look brown, and to crackle in the pan; and Catherine stood by with a fork and turned it: then she said to herself, The steak is almost ready, I may as well go to the cellar for the ale.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I had only time, in dressing, to glance at the solid furniture, the framed pieces of work (done, I supposed, by Steerforth's mother when she was a girl), and some pictures in crayons of ladies with powdered hair and bodices, coming and going on the walls, as the newly-kindled fire crackled and sputtered, when I was called to dinner.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When the doctors examined him they heard popping and crackling sounds (crepitus), which extended from his neck all the way down to his ribcage — a sure sign that air bubbles had found their way into the deep tissue and muscles of the chest, which was subsequently confirmed by a computed tomography scan.

(Blocking A Sneeze, Man Ruptures Throat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

“It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it,” said he in a crackling voice.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Dear knights and gentlemen, he cried in a high crackling voice, worthy Christian cavaliers, will ye ride past and leave an aged pilgrim to die of hunger?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)