Due to the nonlinearity of breathing crack, cracked structure under excitation of a single frequency always generates higher harmonic components. In this paper, operational deflection shape (ODS) at excitation frequency and its higher harmonic components are used to map the deflection pattern of cracked structure. While ODS is sensitive to local variation of structure in nature, a new concept named transmissibility of operational deflection shape (TODS) has been defined for crack localization using beam-like structure. The transmissibility indicates the energy transfer from basic frequency to higher frequency. Then, Teager energy operator (TEO) is employed as a singularity detector to reveal and characterize the features of TODS. Numerical and experimental analysis in cantilever beam show that TODS has strong sensitivity to crack and can locate the crack correctly.