subs. (common).—Anything approaching perfection. Used in both a good and bad sense; e.g., a rattling pace, a large sum of money, a bad fall, an enormous lie, a dandy (male or female) of the first magnitude, and so forth. [Cf., CRACK, subs.; senses 3 and 7, adj., and verb, sense 1.]
1861. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Good for Nothing, ch. vi. ‘I remember … Belphegor’s year. What a CRACKER I stood to win on him and the Rejected!’
1863. C. READE, Hard Cash, I., 28. You know the university was in a manner beaten, and he took the blame. He never cried; that was a CRACKER of those fellows.
1869. Daily News, Nov. 8. ‘Leader.’ Now he’s gone a CRACKER over head and ears.
1871. Daily News, Nov. 1. ‘Prince of Wales’ Visit to Scarborough.’ The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a CRACKER, Lord Carrington finishing a good first.
1883. Graphic, March 24, p. 303, col. 1. He [the Oxford stroke] could also depend on his own men for not falling to pieces through being taken off at a CRACKER.
