Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A hard crisp biscuit.
- n. Crisp bits of fried pork fat; cracklings.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small, brittle fancy biscuit shaped in a dish; a hard, brittle cake or biscuit.
- n. plural Small bits of fat pork fried crisp.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A hard brittle cake or biscuit.
Etymologies
- French craquelin (Wiktionary)
- Middle English crakenele, alteration of Old French craquelin, from Middle Dutch krākelinc, small cake, from krāken, to crack; see gerə-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“My favorite example of this sort of thing is in Harkavy's Yiddish-English-Hebrew dictionary, which for Yiddish beygl meaning "bagel" gives . . . "cracknel.”
“Andreevich, munching a cracknel after emptying his glass.”
“In the second act Louis, one of the princely lackeys, brings a large cracknel and huge paper-cornet of sweets for Cornelia, whom he courts and whose favor he hopes in this way to win.”
The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas
“When he is gone, Dal Segno's sister Julia, lady's maid to the Princess, enters with birthday-presents for her niece Cornelia, and among the things which attract her attentions sees the cracknel, beside which she finds a note from her own faithless lover Louis.”
The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas
“How often she baked cracknel, cakes, rolls, and sweet biscuit, and sent great plates full of them to those who could not have such things, for she said, 'May those who pass by and smell the fragrance of my cakes never desire them in vain.”
“On Sundays the mistress would give him a gingerbread or a cracknel, and amuse herself with his baby prattle.”
“Yes, it's 'licious," agreed Joan, with her mouth full of cracknel biscuit.”
“Little children prefer red sugar-plums to white, and always think it the best "content" which is drunk from a painted cup; but when the dispensation of content and sugar-plums has yielded to maturer age, the man takes his coffee and his cracknel without observing the pattern of the pottery.”
“Dymov hurriedly drank a glass of tea, took a cracknel, and, smiling gently, went to the station.”
“Maggie was drawn into the dark little hall that smelt of cracknel biscuits and lamp oil, there was the green baize door, and then suddenly the shrill cry of the parrot, and then, out of the dark, the fiery eyes of Thomas the cat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cracknel’.
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September Words-10031
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
pseudonym, Cacophony, Cannabis, Bogus, Soulless, via, celestial, Liquor, dwarf, Wretched, Gemini, quartz and 53 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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Speak, Memory
Words gathered while reading Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov.
cracknel, shingly, glaucous, stretcherman, goodish, loden, gutticle, percha, plasticine, instar, wellhole, camera-lucida and 357 more...
Tweets
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