crackle

«crackle» in Mova's school dictionary: to make a lot of short, sharp, small sounds, like a fire… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (crackle, crackles, crackled, crackling); noun (a crackle, crackles)

meaning for a pupil

1) To crackle is to make a lot of short, sharp, small sounds, like a fire burning or paper being crushed. tree →

2) A crackle is one of these sounds, or a series of them. tree →

3) To crackle with something (excitement, energy) means to be full of it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories the fire crackles in the fireplace, leaves crackle underfoot, a radio crackles before a voice comes through. In science it is an example of sound: dry wood snaps and pops when it burns. Phrases: crackle of the fire, snap crackle and pop, crackle with excitement.

examples

• The logs crackled in the fireplace. tree →
• Dry leaves crackled under our boots. tree →
• The radio crackled and then went silent. tree →
• I heard the crackle of a crisp packet. tree →
• The air crackled with excitement before the match. tree →
• Rice cereal crackles when you pour milk on it. tree →
• We sat by the crackling campfire. tree →
• The badger, hearing the crackle of the burning grass, asked, “What is that?” tree →

note

Regular verb: crackled, crackling. An onomatopoeic word: it sounds like the noise it names. «Crackling» is also the crispy skin of roast pork. Compare: crack (one loud sound), crackle (many small ones).

In the corpora

• At first it's fun: twigs crackle, logs trip him, fungus on stumps looks like funny faces.
• A stethoscope lets the doctor hear the heart and lungs, and wheezes or crackles can be signs of illness.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «crackle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.