Crack of dawn vs. break of dawn?

[Andreana]

Hi, I've recently overhead a conversation between two native speakers and of them used the phrase crack of dawn. I also remember hearing the phrase break of dawn somewhere. Now is there a difference between those two word combinations and if so could you please explain it?
Have a good Friday,
Andreana
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A smile will open doors

[Alan]

Hi Andreana,

Both crack and break of dawn obviously mean very early in the morning when the sun rises. My feeling is that break of dawn sounds vaguely poetic and also a little artificial whereas keeping the idea of break , the word daybreak would be more common. At the crack of dawn gives a more dramatic sense of the day beginning and is much more common. When someone says: 'We've got to be up at the crack of dawn (or very often simply at the crack)', they are showing how much effort they've got to make to get up that early.

Hope these rambling thoughts help.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A day in the life of a policeman