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Is there a single verb that conveys the idea of "just opening X a bit", "slightly opening" or "opening a gap"?

Examples

  • He ____ the window just so that a light breeze could come in.
  • The door was not totally closed. Someone had ____ it.

Remark

The option that I like the most so far is "tilt", but I see two drawbacks:

  • It conveys a vertical movement (it wouldn't apply to a door).
  • It could, especially to the eyes of non-fluent speakers, not be clear if the window/door is being opened or just its inclination is being changed.
guest_user
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    Tilt sounds very wrong to this native US English speaker. "Tilt" means something like "put at a sideways angle". You could open a window by tilting it if it opened that way, but if it opened by sliding, it wouldn't make any sense. – stangdon Jul 09 '18 at 15:42
  • Related: How should I understand “She cracked open a door”? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/58611/how-should-i-understand-she-cracked-open-a-door –  Jul 10 '18 at 05:02
  • According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, to crack meaning to open has an old history: *crack* [late 16C+] to open, orig. of a bottle etc, meaning to have a drink; latterly to open anything, e.g. a door etc. - https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/stfhfzq –  Jul 10 '18 at 12:04

5 Answers5

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Crack

  • to open a small amount

crack a window

He cracked the window just so that a light breeze could come in.

The door was not totally closed. Someone had cracked it open.

Per comments below, if you are in North America, saying "he cracked the window" is perfectly acceptable.

But in other places, saying he opened the window a crack or he cracked the window open would be clearer.

wrymug
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    "Crack a window" to me sounds like you've broken it! I would however say "He opened the window a crack". – Muzer Jul 09 '18 at 16:00
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    @Muzer This seems to be an Americanism. I can't find anything similar to this in the English OED. There is the more usual noun version: the door opened a tiny crack and the phrase crack (open) a bottle but that's it. Edit: On the other hand the US version of the OED does list the meaning as does merriam-webster. Sounds weird to my ears too. – Voo Jul 09 '18 at 16:04
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    @Voo that would make sense, since I'm British :) – Muzer Jul 09 '18 at 16:36
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    As an American, "crack the window" sounds fine and was my first thought. – Kevin Jul 09 '18 at 16:40
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    @Muzer Same here (well not exactly British, but I did learn BE originally). I'd be pretty worried if someone told me they cracked the window. – Voo Jul 09 '18 at 16:44
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    I usually hear it as "cracked open a window/door". "Cracked a window" would be ambiguous between "cracked open" and "broke" – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jul 09 '18 at 16:55
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    As another American, I have never heard "crack the window", but maybe "crack open the window" and "open the window a crack" as Muzer commented. – Cave Johnson Jul 09 '18 at 18:57
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    @BlueRaja - In isolation, the phrase "I cracked the window" might be ambiguous. In context, the sentence "He cracked the window so a light breeze could come in" is pretty clear. – J.R. Jul 09 '18 at 19:35
  • @Muzer - From Wordnik: crack (verb) To open to a slight extent : cracked the window to let in some air. Interesting that this might be a North American regionalism. – J.R. Jul 09 '18 at 19:36
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    To this speaker of NYC American English, "crack a window" sounds perfectly natural. "Crack open a window" sounds weird, like the speaker was not quite familiar with the idiom. "Crack the window" does not seem ambiguous to me unless there is no context - hearing "he crossed the room and cracked the window", I would always think that he opened the window, not that he broke the glass. – stangdon Jul 09 '18 at 20:01
  • Here's something that suggests that the crack the window idiom is relatively new - notice that it doesn't even really begin to take off until 1970, and "crack open the window" doesn't really take off until 1990 or so: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cracked+the+window%2Ccracked+open+the+window&year_start=1900&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccracked%20the%20window%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccracked%20open%20the%20window%3B%2Cc0 – stangdon Jul 09 '18 at 20:07
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    To introduce yet another formulation (Southern California childhood, Washington DC adulthood), I would crack the window open; crack the window would be adequate in context, but I agree with @stangdon that crack open the window sounds odd to me for no firm reason. I would crack open a beer, not a window. – choster Jul 09 '18 at 21:39
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    I'm from California and while this usage is familiar to me, I agree that it's probably an Americanism and possibly even a regionalism. It's also worth noting that it's used for doors too, not just windows. – user2752467 Jul 09 '18 at 22:19
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    @stangdon The ngram search also shows that "cracked the window" is five times more common in American English than it is in British English. – Voo Jul 09 '18 at 22:27
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    "crack a window" is idiomatic for me, as a Canadian. – CCTO Jul 10 '18 at 02:04
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    Wow! Controversial. My immediate thought was "there have to be better ways to open a window than to break it" How many Melville, Twain, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Pynchon books have I misunderstood because of it?! – PatrickT Jul 10 '18 at 06:25
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    Native BrE speaker here, who immediately though "crack a window" and would be perfectly happy with it. I am, however, still relatively young (early 30s) and watch a lot of US TV, so I may have picked up the phrase from there. – AndyT Jul 10 '18 at 10:23
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    Common in the South too; I hear it here in Alabama all the time. – Hearth Jul 10 '18 at 12:45
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    British speaker here and "Crack a window" would sound fine in context. Perhaps "Crack a window ajar" would help clarify. Not to be confused with "Crack a window with a jar"... –  Jul 10 '18 at 14:55
  • @PatrickT It is quite possible the modern usage did not have much weight at the time those authors were writing - a comment above indicates this took off in the 1970's. I don't think it's very likely that there would have been confusion, particularly from such skilled authors. – Darren Ringer Jul 10 '18 at 17:04
  • @Muzer In British English I would also use "unlatched" as the verb, as in "He unlatched the window so it opened a crack." – Dragonel Jul 11 '18 at 00:49
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    Another Brit here: "crack open" would be good "crack" alone suggests breakage primarily, though would be understood after a pause or in context. – Chris H Jul 11 '18 at 08:58
  • @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft For me (Midwestern/Californian) it depends on context and, somewhat, on the determiner. "He cracked a window" without further context is ambiguous, but "He cracked the window" leans towards opening over breaking for some reason while "He cracked my window" strongly implies breakage. In the imperative, though, the expression pretty clearly refers to "opening a little bit" without needing any further context. Something like "Hey, could you crack a window?" isn't ambiguous for me at all. – 1006a Jul 11 '18 at 16:02
  • Don't say "crack" as in "opened slightly." It's rarely used, and a lot of people won't understand it. Just say "opened slightly" instead. It's simple and easy to understand. – austingae Jul 15 '20 at 05:46
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Though not exactly a verb, the adjective/adverb ajar was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw your post:

If a door, window or other opening is ajar, it is slightly open.

For example:

We left the door ajar so that we could hear what they were saying.

You can easily turn it into a verb expression if you use it along with an appropriate verb: set something ajar or leave something ajar. Thanks TRiG in the comments section for this suggestion.

Michael Rybkin
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    If you want a verb, try set ajar. – TRiG Jul 09 '18 at 16:36
  • It's time someone came up with "He ajared the window to let the breeze in" – PatrickT Jul 10 '18 at 06:25
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    Thank you for the recommendation, Michael. I think @rosslh's answer fits more my needs, so I marked it as the official answer, but ajar is an interesting fancy word to add to my vocabulary ;) – guest_user Jul 10 '18 at 07:19
  • @guest_user - There is a difference between "open something slightly" and "not close something completely". For your first example sentence rosslh's answer is perfect: "He cracked the window just so that a light breeze could come in.". This really doesn't work for your second example, as you imply that it had been fully opened and then later partially closed; for that this answer is much more idiomatic: "The door was not totally closed. Someone had left it ajar." – AndyT Jul 10 '18 at 10:26
  • A famous preserve producer has died and in his will he left his favorite door a jar. (I'll get my coat). – Bent Jul 10 '18 at 12:28
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    @AndyT I've heard "left open a crack / left cracked open / left cracked" many times. In person, in books, in television and movies. – Aethenosity Jul 10 '18 at 15:06
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    @Aethenosity - Yep, those phrases all work. I think my main point still stands: the verb "to crack" means "to open something a small amount" and can't mean "to close something but not completely". For the closing you need the verb "to leave" with an adjective / past-participle. The secondary point of the choice of adjective: I agree with you that it can be "ajar" or "cracked open". – AndyT Jul 10 '18 at 15:13
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    In the US early days of cars that "talked to you", when you didn't get a car door completely closed (and latched), the car's voice would say, "Your door is ajar", and my friends and I would always say back (to the car), "No, my door is a door. It's just not latched." lol – geneSummons Jul 10 '18 at 18:01
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    @geneSummons When is a door not a door? WHEN IT'S AJAR! – Monica Apologists Get Out Jul 11 '18 at 12:28
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Nudge

He nudged the door open.

Would you nudge that window open?

Shawn Mehan
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Pull it to/Close it to

is a perhaps rare, maybe regional way of saying "Close the door so that it's resting to the frame, but not shut all the way". As in "Pull it to [the frame]". Leaving it on the latch is this, also. I heard this expression in Yorkshire as a kid in the noughties, but it has apparently been heard elsewhere.

This is mainly for doors, for windows I'd use the American sounding "crack" as above.

Capsandnumbers
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to prop (open)

Merriam Webster: Definition 2

I agree that crack is better, but this was my first thought. Implies the use of a helper object like a doorstop.

  • He propped the window open so that a light breeze could come in.

  • The door was not totally closed. Someone had propped it open.

In my opinion, really couldn't be used without 'open.' or at least another adjective, like (possibly) 'ajar.' (I can't think of an example that sentence that sounds good and uses only 'ajar.')

IridescenceDeep
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  • But prop doesn't say anything about how open the window/door is. I can prop a window or door open all the way, and that's not what OP wants. – Kevin Jul 11 '18 at 00:01