cracker n NID crackerberry.
   Comb cracker berry, cracker: dwarf cornel (Cornus canadensis); PIGEON BERRY.
   [1822] 1928 CORMACK 21-2 The surface is bespangled ... by ... the one-sided wintergreen, the crackerberry bearing a cluster of wholesome red berries. sometimes called pigeon-berries. 1858 [LOWELL] i, 94 Crackers. partridge-berries, horts, and others enrich the barrenness, and make it worth while for Women and children to come and gather them. 1908 TOWNSEND 46 The fruit of the northern dwarf cornel or bunchberry is sometimes gathered and cooked. It is called 'cracker.' 1915 SOUTHCOTT 15 Crackerberry. Leaves in a whorl. Flowers greenish, surrounded by a 4-leaved white or pinkish involucre. Fruit bright red. Woods everywhere. 1939 DULEY 19 Then there was the little plant that was a white star in spring and four red berries in autumn. They were holding her worse than the Little People. All at once the Priest made her forget the whorts and the cracker-berries. 1966 HORWOOD 19 Fat, red crackerberries, which snapped and cracked between your teeth. 1975 SCOTT 57 The Crackerberry, Crackers, or Bunchberry is familiar to everyone throughout the island... It grows in woods and some open spots.
   cracker bone, crack bone: forked bone between the neck and breast of a fowl; wish-bone.
   C 69-28 A common practice among children is to crack the cracker bone of a chicken or any fowl to see who's going to [be] married first. 1971 NOSEWORTHY 188 Crack-bone: breastbone.
   cracker jack: see cracker berry.
   C 70-28 [There is] a type of red berry found in the woods near Lady Cove, grow in clumps, with a bunch of a half-dozen or so berries per stalk. They are called bunchy-berries or crackerjacks.

Go Back