crackle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make a succession of slight sharp snapping noises: a fire crackling in the wood stove.
2. v. To show liveliness, energy, or intensity: a book that crackles with humor.
3. v. To become covered with a network of fine cracks; craze.
4. v. To crush (paper, for example) with sharp snapping sounds.
5. v. To cause (china, for example) to become covered with a network of fine cracks.
6. n. The act or sound of crackling.
7. n. A network of fine cracks on the surface of glazed pottery, china, or glassware.
8. n. Crackleware.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make slight cracks, or sudden sharp, explosive noises, rapidly or frequently repeated; crepitate: as, burning thorns crackle.
2. To quaver in singing.
3. In lute-playing, to play the tones of a chord in succession instead of simultaneously. See arpeggio.
4. To cover with a network of minute cracks, as porcelain or glass.
5. n. One of a series of small, sharp, quickly repeated noises, such as are made by a burning fire; crackling.
6. n. A small crack; specifically, a network of cracks characterizing the surface-glaze of some kinds of porcelain and fine pottery. It penetrates the glaze, and is produced artificially by causing the glaze to shrink more than the body of the ware: as, a fine crackle showing purple lines; a coarse crackle with black lines, etc. Some of the most delicate crackles are said to be produced by the heat of the sun, to which the newly applied glaze is exposed; dry color is then rubbed over the piece, filling up the cracks, and the piece is afterward fired.
7. n. In pathology, same as crepitant rále (which see. under rále).

Wiktionary

1. n. A fizzing, popping sound.
2. n. pottery A style of glaze giving the impression of many small cracks.
3. n. physics The fifth derivative of the position vector with respect to time (after velocity, acceleration, jerk, and jounce), i.e. the rate of change of jounce.
4. v. intransitive To make a fizzing, popping sound.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make slight cracks; to make small, sharp, sudden noises, rapidly or frequently repeated; to crepitate.
2. n. The noise of slight and frequent cracks or reports; a crackling.
3. n. (Med.) A kind of crackling sound or râle, heard in some abnormal states of the lungs.
4. n. (Fine Arts) A condition produced in certain porcelain, fine earthenware, or glass, in which the glaze or enamel appears to be cracked in all directions, making a sort of reticulated surface.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. having the surface decorated with a network of fine cracks, as in crackleware
2. n. the sharp sound of snapping noises
3. v. make a crackling sound
4. v. to become, or to cause to become, covered with a network of small cracks
5. n. glazed china with a network of fine cracks on the surface
6. v. make a crushing noise