Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Cracking up
I've thought and thought about this - why is there no relationship between "cracking up" and "cracking down?" Or maybe there is. One is going crazy/laughing hard and the other is enforcing rules with force. I didn't look this up in the dictionary but maybe there is a relationship! "I'm going to crack down on you until you crack up." Of course, it would really give me a start if I cracked down and they cracked up by laughing hysterically.
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Well, I looked it up just now. It seems that the term "crack up" refers to something collapsing or breaking down. The most common usage, it seems, is for people to refer to people losing control of their laughter; however, it can be used for other things.
Cracking down is a tightening. Tightening and collapsing are pretty much opposites, I should think.
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