cracking

Rur. to get to work. If you want to finish that quilt by Labor Day, you best get cracking. Sit down to your homework and get cracking!

to begin working without delay If you plan on growing these flowers from seed, you better get cracking now.

to hurry Simon realized he'd have to get a move on if he was going to finish by 4 o'clock.

something that you say in order to tell someone to hurry Get cracking! We're leaving in 5 minutes.

to hurry (often an order) Get a move on, man! We don't have all day. Simon realised he'd have to get a move on if he was to finish by 4 o'clock.

Also, get cracking or going or rolling . Hurry up; also, start working. For example, Get a move on, it's late, or Let's get cracking, kids, or It's time we got going, or The alarm went off ten minutes ago, so get rolling. The first colloquial expression dates from the late 1800s. The second term, also colloquial, employs the verb to crack in the sense of "travel with speed," a usage dating from the early 1800s, but the idiom dates only from the first half of the 1900s. The third term dates from the late 1800s and also has other meanings; see get going. Get rolling alludes to setting wheels in motion and dates from the first half of the 1900s. Also see get busy; get on the stick.

see under get a move on.