What it means
Cracking means really good, brilliant, spot-on. You’ll hear it for anything that hits the mark: a cuppa, a bargain, a night out, even the weather if it behaves. It’s friendly, old-school British praise, not too gushy, just solid approval. Wallace and Gromit helped keep it in the national ear with that cracking cheese line.
Usage examples
"Went to Whitby for fish and chips, got dive-bombed by a cheeky seagull, but it was still a cracking day, proper reet."
"That was a cracking match, four goals, a last minute winner, and the away end going absolutely mental, best tenner I've spent."
"She did a cracking job on the garden, you wouldn't know it was a jungle this time last month."
Where it comes from
It comes from crack, the old sense of something first rate or done at speed, as in a cracking pace back in the eighteen hundreds. The praise just stuck around, and a cartoon dog and his cheese loving owner kept it firmly in British ears for a whole new generation.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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