/nut"krak'euhr/ , n.
1. an instrument or device for cracking the shells of nuts.
2. any of several corvine birds of the genus Nucifraga that feed on nuts, as the common nutcracker, N. caryocatactes, of Europe and Clark's nutcracker, N. columbiana, of the western U.S.
[ 1540-50; NUT + CRACKER ]