crack-up
(ˈkrækʌp)
[f. crack v. 15.]
Disintegration (under strain), collapse; a crash.
| 1926 Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 7/1 Crack up, wreck of an aeroplane. 1927 C. A. Lindbergh We ii. 53 The propeller came in contact with the ground... My first ‘crack-up’! 1936 F. Scott Fitzgerald in Esquire Feb. 41 (title) Crack-up: a desolately frank document from one for whom the salt of life has lost its flavor. Ibid. Apr. 39/1 How an..optimistic young man experienced a crack-up of all values. 1936 L. C. Douglas White Banners xix. 393 Then came this crack-up in the stock market. 1937 New Republic 19 May 37/1 No..aircraft in the world..has suffered so many crack-ups. 1938 Polit. Q. Jan.–Mar. 25 The dangerous crack-up in our foreign situation. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 May 286/5 Berlin under air attack,..and the final crack-up. 1963 S. Weintraub Private & Public Shaw vi. 178 Motorboats used to speed to the scene of a crack-up on the water. |