What it means
A very British shove to stop faffing and get moving. You use it to tell someone to start the job, carry on with it, or quit dragging their feet and just do the thing. It can be brisk, jokey, or mildly bossy. In dating chat, crack on can also mean go make your move and chat someone up. Context does the sorting.
Usage examples
"We’ve been outside Tesco for ages chatting. Crack on, grab a meal deal, then go over and ask them for their Insta."
"No time for a break, let's just crack on and finish the painting."
"You can stand there reorganising your toolbox all morning, or you can crack on and fit the bloody shelf."
"He kept saying he fancied her, so we told him to crack on and ask for her number before the pub shut."
"You gonna stand there overthinking the text all night, or crack on and send it?"
Where it comes from
It comes from older British uses of crack meaning a sharp action or sudden start, same family as get cracking. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, crack on was already in UK speech for pushing ahead with pace. The flirting sense showed up later through usage, not from a separate origin.
Other ways to say it
This expression also appears in
