crack (SOUND), cracking the whip

Of course, this phenomenon didn’t begin with this administration. The last Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., was the head honcho of Goldman Sachs and was paid hundreds of millions by it. (Yes, that’s one of the banks that we as taxpayers supported with many billions, via the A.I.G. conduit.)

I know people and I know money, at least the basics. If anyone thinks that a man who has had a taste of honey from Wall Street on that scale will ever really crack the whip on Wall Street, he’s dreaming. Wall Street knows how to get its hooks into government. This is how the world works. Money talks.

Police Put a High-Tech Ear to the Ground
Police departments nationwide are enlisting a new system of high-tech microphones to detect the crack of gunshots and pinpoint the sound's origin, in an effort to cut officer response time.

crack (SOUND) Hide phonetics
verb
1 [I or T] to make a sudden, short noise, or to cause something to make this noise:
The whip cracked over the horses' heads.
He's always cracking his knuckles (= pulling the joints of his fingers to make a noise).

2 [I] If a voice cracks, its sound changes because the person is upset:
Her voice cracked with emotion as she told the story.

crack Hide phonetics
noun [C]
a sudden loud sound:
the crack of a rifle/whip/breaking branch


crack the whip
Behave in a domineering and demanding way toward one's subordinates. For example, He's been cracking the whip ever since he got his promotion. This expression, first recorded in 1647, alludes to drivers of horse-drawn wagons who snapped their whips hard, producing a loud cracking noise. Its figurative use dates from the late 1800s.