Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An implement used to crack nuts, typically consisting of two hinged metal levers between which the nut is squeezed.
  • noun Either of two birds, Nucifraga caryocatactes of northern Eurasia or N. columbiana of western North America, that feed chiefly on the seeds of pine cones.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An instrument for cracking hard-shelled nuts.
  • noun A toy, usually having a grotesque human head, in the yawning mouth of which a nut is placed to be cracked by a screw or lever.
  • noun plural The pillory.
  • noun A corvine bird of Europe and Asia, Nucifraga caryocatactes, belonging to the order Passeres, family Corvidæ, and subfamily Garrulinæ. See cut at Nucifraga.
  • noun The nuthatch, Sitta cæsia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An instrument for cracking nuts.
  • noun A European bird (Nucifraga caryocatactes), allied to the magpie and crow. Its color is dark brown, spotted with white. It feeds on nuts, seeds, and insects.
  • noun The American, or Clarke's, nutcracker (Picicorvus Columbianus) of Western North America.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An implement for cracking nuts.
  • noun Either of two birds of the genus Nucifraga in the crow family.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a compound lever used to crack nuts open
  • noun speckled birds that feed on nuts
  • noun any of various small short-tailed songbirds with strong feet and a sharp beak that feed on small nuts and insects

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From nut +‎ cracker

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word nutcracker.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.