Heading
maquiller une cambriole (thieves': maquiller = to do, to 'fake'—an almost universal verb of action); faire fric-frac; nettoyer un bocart (thieves').
German Synonyms. Aufnollen (to 'burgle' with skeleton keys); aufplatzen (literally 'to wrench' or 'break open'); aufschränken (schränken [from Schranke, O. H. G. screnchan, M. H. G. schranne, schrange, schrand] = a burglary with violence. Schränker = burglar. Up to the middle of the present century burglars used to be called Schränker a zierlicher; Schränkmassematten = a burglary with violence; Schränkzeug, Schränkschaure, Schränkschurrich = burglars' tools); blaupfeifen (Viennese thieves'); Cassne handeln or melochenen (to commit burglary with open violence); einen Massematten handeln (Massematten is a word whose Hebraic components very nearly correspond to the English 'debit and credit'; it signifies commerce and activity—of the kind that pertains to cracksmanship; e.g., einen Massematten baldowern, to make an opportunity for theft; einen Massematten stehen haben, to have 'dead-lurked' a crib, or prepared a burglary; Massematten bekoach a burglary with violence.)
1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 297, ed. 1854. And you members as now I met Harry and you—there, and I vas all afeard at you—cause vy? I had never seen you afore and ve vas a going to crack a swell's crib.
1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 5. Jer. Now comes the grand spec; we go to crack a ken; Kit's in, so's the captain. Steady's the word; I go first, you all follow.
1871. Standard, 26 Dec. If their pals outside, the gentry who hocus Jack ashore in the east, pick the pockets of Lord Dundreary in the west, and crack cribs in the lonely outskirts could only realise how miserable the Christmas-day was for them, we might look out for a needful retrenchment in the estimates of penal expenditure.
1871. Morning Advertiser, 11 May. 'Leader.' He took to burglary, employing professional burglars to assist him, whenever it became necessary to crack a crib.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack.
To crack a judy (or her tea cup), verb. phr. (common).—To deflower a maid.
To crack a crust, phr. (common).—To rub along in the world. A superlative for doing very well is, To crack a tidy crust.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 445. I am now just managing to crack an honest crust; and while I can do that I will never thieve more.
To crack a ken, verb. phr. (thieves').—To commit a burglary; to crack a crib (q.v.).—[See Crack, verb, sense 2 and Ken.]
To crack a whid, verb. phr. (thieves').—To talk. [Whid (q.v.) = a word: Old Cant.] Cf., Cut, verb, sense 1. For synonyms, see Patter.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 22. The whids as the words or set phrases used by Cheap Johns in disposing of their articles are called are very much alike . . . many little circumstances occur when they (the whids) are being cracked which are lost to a reader.
To crack on, verb. phr. (common).—To 'put on speed'; increase one's pace.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xi. 'I shot a wild goose at River Philip last year, with the rice of Varginny fresh in his crop; he must have cracked on near about as fast as them other geese, the British travellers.'
