In World War II slang, what does it mean to call someone "a crack"? [closed]
My students will be reading "The Price of Freedom", an essay by Noreen Riols about some of her experiences during World War II. In it, Riols writes that she fell "in love with an agent. He was one of our best agents. A crack. He'd just returned from a very successful second mission..."
What is a crack?
Is he someone who cracks codes?
Is she saying he's a real "cracker jack"?
Solution 1:
It can be a bit confusing since it may seem like "crack" is being used as a noun. It's not. It's being used as an adjective. The author has left the noun that it describes unsaid, along with leaving the subject and verb unsaid, as well. Referring back to the prior sentence to glean what they all are, one may infer that the unsaid noun that "crack" describes is "agent," and the unsaid subject and verb are "he" and "is," respectively, meaning the complete sentence that the author's sentence "A crack" signifies is:
He was a crack agent.
"Crack" there means first-rate, excellent (see def. 44 - https://www.dictionary.com/browse/crack).
Solution 2:
Actually crack in the sense of an excellent person or thing is used as a noun:
- (a) in fig. uses. (a) any person, animal or thing that approaches perfection.
- 1936 [Aus] ‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 63: He was a real crack, but he turned unmanageable at the barrier so they refused his nominations.
(Green’s Dictionary of Slang)