Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definitions: Nutcracker |
NutcrackerNoun1. A compound lever used to crack nuts open. 2. Any of various small short-tailed sharp-beaked birds that creep on trees and feed on small nuts and insects. 3. Speckled birds that feed on nuts. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Mechanical Engineering | Pivoted links preventing relative rotation between cylinder and piston of oleo shockstrut. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | See:boulder buster. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This page refers to the tool for cracking nuts. For the bird of this name, see Nutcracker (bird). For the popular ballet, see The Nutcracker.
A Nutcracker as a wood carving of a soldier, knight, king or other profession has been known at least since the 15th century. It is a carving of a person with a big mouth that is opened by pressing a lever in the back of the figurine. Originally you could insert a nut in the big-toothed mouth, press down and thereby crack the nut. Today's nutcrackers are mostly for decoration.
The carving of nutcrackers as well as religious figures and cribs developed as a cottage industry in forested rural areas of Germany. The most famous nutcracker carvings come from Sonneberg, Thuringia, also a center of doll making, and from the Ore Mountains. Wood carving was usually the only income for the people living there. Today their income is supplemented by the travel industry bringing visitors to the remote areas.
Nutcrackers have become popular in the United States as well and a recreated "Bavarian village" of Leavenworth, Washington even features a Nutcracker Museum. Many other materials were used for the decorated nutcrackers, such as porcelain, silver, and brass, and can be seen at the museum.
Carvings by famous names like Jungbanel, Mertens, Karl, Kolbe, Petersen, Ulbricht and especially the Steinbach nutcrackers have become collectors' items.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Nutcracker."
Synonyms: NutcrackerSynonyms: nutcrackers (n), nuthatch (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Nutcracker |
| English words defined with "nutcracker": Clark's nutcracker, common nutcracker ♦ Nucifraga caryocatactes, Nucifraga columbiana, Nutbreaker. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "nutcracker": Nutcracker Syndrome. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Incidentally, you won't see a nutcracker on the screen. (Fantasia; writing credit: Joe Grant; Dick Huemer) Nutcracker, I do love you, but I can't stay in the Land of the Dolls forever. (The Nutcracker Prince; writing credit: E.T.A. Hoffmann; Patricia Watson) Maybe if I put a little dish of butter sauce here with a nutcracker, it will run out the other side. (Annie Hall; writing credit: Woody Allen ; Marshall Brickman) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Nutcracker (1964) Nutcracker Suite (1925) The IMAX Nutcracker (1997) Nutcracker (1982) The Nutcracker (1978) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | ![]() | Edward Villella, mid-air leap, in costume for his role as the Peppermint Stick in Tschaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" as performed by the New York City Ballet at City Center.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Nutcracker" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.88% of the time. "Nutcracker" is used about 32 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.88% | 31 | 62,296 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.13% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 32 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "nutcracker": Clark's nutcracker ♦ common nutcracker ♦ Nutcracker Syndrome. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "nutcracker"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | zog që ushqet me arra, thyerëse lajthish, thyerëse arrash, arrëthyese. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كسارة الجوز (cracker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | орешарка. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | louskáèek (crackers, nut-cracker, nutcrackers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | noeddekrige, noeddeknaekker. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | notenkraker, notekraker, torsieschaar (scissors, torque links), onderstelschaar (landing gear scissors, LG scissors, toggle links, torque links). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | فندق شکن (Caliper, Calliper, Cracker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | compas de train, compas, cassenoix moucheté, casse-noix, casse-noisette. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Nussknacker. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | καρυοθραύστησ, καρυοθραύστης, καρυδοσπάστης, σύνδεσμοι στρέψης σκέλους προσγείωσης (landing gear scissors, LG scissors, toggle links, torque links), σύνδεσμοι στρέψης (scissors, torque links). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מפצח א'וזים. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | diótörő (cracker, crackers, nutcrackers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | schiaccianoci. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 胡桃割り (nutcrackers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | くるみわり (nutcrackers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | scolteyder (chopper, cleaver, gutter, hewer, splitter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | utcrackernay quebra-nozes (nut-gall), cor de noz, compasso do trem de aterragem (landing gear scissors, LG scissors, toggle links, torque links), compasso (beat, compass, compasses, measure, planting distance, rhythm, scissors, spacing, tact, time, torque links). (various references) spãrgãtor de nuci (cracker). (various references) щипцы для орехов (crackers), ореховка. (various references) krckalica za orahe. (various references) cascanueces (grosbeak). (various references) nötkråka, nötknäppare (crackers, nutcrackers). (various references) ที่บีบหรือกะเทาะเปลือกถั่ว (nutcrackers). (various references) kanca burun ve çene, köknar kargası, fındıkkıran, ceviz kıracağı. (various references) щипці для горіхів, горіщанка, лускунчик. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Nucifraga caryocatactes, RM:cratschla. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "nutcracker": nutcrackers. (additional references) | |
| |
"Nutcracker" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: nutcrackery. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "nutcracker" (pronounced nu"tkra'ker) |
| 5 | -k r a' k er | firecracker. |
| 3 | -a' k er | carjacker, hijacker, linebacker. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-e-k-n-r-r-t-u" | |
-3 letters: centaur, cracker, cranker, currant, current, retrack, tracker, trucker, uncrate. | |
-4 letters: accent, accrue, acuter, cancer, canker, canter, carnet, carter, centra, crater, curare, curate, curran, curter, errant, krater, nature, nectar, racker, racket, ranker, ranter, recant, rerack, retack, return, tacker, tanker, tanrec, tracer, trance, tucker, turner, uncake, untack. | |
-5 letters: acute, antre, caner, carer, caret, carte, cater. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-c-e-k-n-r-r-t-u" | |
+1 letter: nutcrackers. | |
+5 letters: counterattacker. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4E 75 74 63 72 61 63 6B 65 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-. ..- - -.-. .-. .- -.-. -.- . .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001110 01110101 01110100 01100011 01110010 01100001 01100011 01101011 01100101 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)N u t c r a c k e r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004E 0075 0074 0063 0072 0061 0063 006B 0065 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)48878669846769777184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.