[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

cracker \crack"er\ kra^k"~er, n.
   1. one who, or that which, cracks.
      1913 webster

   2. a noisy boaster; a swaggering fellow. obs.
      1913 webster

            what cracker is this same that deafs our ears?
                                                  --shak.
      1913 webster

   3. a small firework, consisting of a little powder inclosed
      in a thick paper cylinder with a fuse, and exploding with
      a sharp noise; -- usually called firecracker.
      1913 webster

   4. a thin, dry biscuit, often hard or crisp; as, a boston
      cracker; a graham cracker; a soda cracker; an oyster
      cracker.
      1913 webster

   5. a nickname to designate a poor white in some parts of the
      southern united states. --bartlett.
      1913 webster

   6. zool. the pintail duck.
      1913 webster

   7. pl. mach. a pair of fluted rolls for grinding
      caoutchouc. --knight.
      1913 webster
see also:
firecracker 

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

cracker
     n 1: a thin crisp wafer made or flour and water with or without
          leavening and shortening; unsweetened or semisweet
     2: a poor white person in the southern united states syn: redneck
     3: a programmer who `cracks' gains unauthorized access to
        computers, typically to do malicious things; "crackers are
        often mistakenly called hackers"
     4: firework consisting of a small explosive charge and fuse in
        a heavy paper casing syn: firecracker, banger
     5: a party favor consisting of a paper roll usually containing
        candy or a small favor that pops when pulled at both ends
        syn: snapper, cracker bonbon
see also:
redneck firecracker banger snapper cracker bonbon 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

60 moby thesaurus words for "cracker":
   brussels biscuit, klaxon, melba toast, backwoodsman, biscuit,
   boiler factory, boiler room, bone, briar-hopper, brush ape,
   bull-roarer, bushman, catcall, cherry bomb, clack, clacker,
   clam digger, clapper, cricket, desert rat, dust, firecracker,
   forester, frontiersman, graham cracker, hardtack, hillbilly,
   hinterlander, horn, mountain man, mountaineer, mummy, noisemaker,
   parchment, pilot biscuit, piny, pretzel, rattle, rattlebox,
   redneck, ridge runner, rusk, saltine, sea biscuit, ship biscuit,
   sinker, siren, snapper, soda cracker, steam whistle, stick,
   ticktack, wafer, whistle, whizgig, whizzer, woodlander, woodman,
   woodsman, zwieback

[4] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

cracker n. one who breaks security on a system. coined ca. 1985 by
   hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of hacker q.v., sense
   8. an earlier attempt to establish `worm' in this sense around 1981-82
   on usenet was largely a failure.

   use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion against the
   theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings. the neologism
   "cracker" in this sense may have been influenced not so much by the term
   "safe-cracker" as by the non-jargon term "cracker", which in middle
   english meant an obnoxious person e.g., "what cracker is this same that
   deafs our ears / with this abundance of superfluous breath?" -
   shakespeare's king john, act ii, scene i and in modern colloquial
   american english survives as a barely gentler synonym for "white trash".

   while it is expected that any real hacker will have done some playful
   cracking and knows many of the basic techniques, anyone past larval
   stage is expected to have outgrown the desire to do so except for
   immediate, benign, practical reasons for example, if it's necessary to
   get around some security in order to get some work done.

   thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and crackerdom than
   the mundane reader misled by sensationalistic journalism might expect.
   crackers tend to gather in small, tight-knit, very secretive groups that
   have little overlap with the huge, open poly-culture this lexicon
   describes; though crackers often like to describe _themselves_ as
   hackers, most true hackers consider them a separate and lower form of
   life.

   ethical considerations aside, hackers figure that anyone who can't
   imagine a more interesting way to play with their computers than
   breaking into someone else's has to be pretty losing. some other
   reasons crackers are looked down on are discussed in the entries on
   cracking and phreaking. see also samurai, dark-side hacker, and
   hacker ethic. for a portrait of the typical teenage cracker, see
   warez d00dz.


see also:
hacker larval stage mundane losing cracking phreaking 
samurai dark-side hacker hacker ethic warez d00dz 

[5] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

cracker
     
         an individual who attempts to gain unauthorised
        access to a computer system.  these individuals are often
        malicious and have many means at their disposal for breaking
        into a system.  the term was coined ca. 1985 by hackers in
        defence against journalistic misuse of "hacker".  an earlier
        attempt to establish "worm" in this sense around 1981--82 on
        usenet was largely a failure.
     
        use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion
        against the theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings.
        the neologism "cracker" in this sense may have been influenced
        not so much by the term "safe-cracker" as by the non-jargon
        term "cracker", which in middle english meant an obnoxious
        person e.g., "what cracker is this same that deafs our ears /
        with this abundance of superfluous breath?"  -- shakespeare's
        king john, act ii, scene i and in modern colloquial american
        english survives as a barely gentler synonym for "white
        trash".
     
        while it is expected that any real hacker will have done some
        playful cracking and knows many of the basic techniques,
        anyone past larval stage is expected to have outgrown the
        desire to do so except for immediate practical reasons for
        example, if it's necessary to get around some security in
        order to get some work done.
     
        contrary to widespread myth, cracking does not usually involve
        some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance, but rather
        persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of fairly
        well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the
        security of target systems.  accordingly, most crackers are
        only mediocre hackers.
     
        thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and
        crackerdom than the mundane reader misled by
        sensationalistic journalism might expect.  crackers tend to
        gather in small, tight-knit, very secretive groups that have
        little overlap with the huge, open hacker poly-culture; though
        crackers often like to describe themselves as hackers, most
        true hackers consider them a separate and lower form of life,
        little better than virus writers.  ethical considerations
        aside, hackers figure that anyone who can't imagine a more
        interesting way to play with their computers than breaking
        into someone else's has to be pretty losing.
     
        see also computer emergency response team, dark-side
        hacker, hacker ethic, phreaking, samurai, trojan
        horse.
     
        jargon file
     
        1998-06-29
     
     
see also:
hacker usenet larval stage mundane virus losing 
computer emergency response team dark-side hacker hacker ethic phreaking samurai 
trojan horse jargon file 

Cracker >> C Words
Cracker, definition of term: Cracker
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