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crack a smile
crack a smile
to grin; to smile. I was tellin' my best jokes, but Jim never cracked a smile. She looked surprised, and then cracked a big, beautiful smile.
crack a smile
(informal) to smile, especially when you do not feel like smiling (usually negative) The man barely cracked a smile at his friend's joke.
crack a smile
Smile, as in Betty was a very serious person; she rarely cracked a smile. This colloquialism transfers crack in the sense of "break" to breaking a serious facial expression into a smile.