Definition of "crank"

crank

/kɹæŋk/

adjective
comparative cranker, superlative crankest
1. (slang) Strange, weird, odd.
2. Sick; unwell.
3. (nautical, of a ship) Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.
  Quotations
  This ship is so crank and waltyI fear our grave she will be!
  1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Phantom Ship
  The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank.
  1833, Edgar Allan Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle
4. Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.
  Quotations
  He who was a little before bedred […] was now cranke and lustie.
  1548, Nicolas Udall, The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente
  If you strong electioners did not think you were among the elect, you would not be so crank about it.
  1856, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp
noun
plural cranks
1. A bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an attached arm perpendicular, or nearly so, to the end of a shaft or wheel, used to impart a rotation to a wheel or other mechanical device; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion.
  1. Clipping of crankshaft.
2. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.
  Quotations
  By comparision, consider the conductor of a double-decked Blackpool tram on August Monday, who hurries up and down stairs to a hundred or more passengers and serves each one by a simple crank of a handle.
  1964 November, E. N. Bellass, “Some questions for Mr. Mugliston”, in Modern Railways, page 330
3. (archaic) Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
  Quotations
  So many turning cranks these have, so many crooks.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, The Cantos of Mutabilitie Canto 7
4. (informal) An ill-tempered or nasty person.
5. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;
6. a fit of temper or passion.
  Quotations
  Violent of temper; subject to sudden cranks.
  1858–1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Chapman and Hall, […]
7. (informal, Britain, dated in US) A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.
  Quotations
  Persons whom the Americans since Guiteau’s trial have begun to designate as ‘cranks’—that is to say, persons of disordered mind, in whom the itch of notoriety supplies the lack of any higher ambition.
  1882 January 14, Pall Mall Gazette
  The raw meat cranks are in dead earnest. They think that raw food is the manna of heaven.
  1901 July 19, “Gleanings”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record‎, volume 4, number 10, page 318
8. (archaic, baseball, slang, 1800s) A baseball fan.
9. (informal) An amateur in science or other technical subjects who persistently advocates flawed theories
10. (US, slang) Synonym of methamphetamine.
11. (rare) A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
  Quotations
  Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,
  a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, page 31
12. (obsolete) A sick person; an invalid.
  Quotations
  Thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater.
  1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps
13. (slang) The penis.
  Quotations
  It was going to be hard not to blow with a girl like her sucking on his crank.
  2013, Reggie Chesterfield, Scoundrel, page 57
verb
third-person singular simple present cranks, present participle cranking, simple past and past participle cranked
1. (transitive) To turn by means of a crank.
2. (intransitive) To turn a crank.
3. (intransitive, of a crank or similar) To turn.
4. (transitive) To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.
5. (intransitive) To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.
6. (intransitive) To be running at a high level of output or effort.
  Quotations
  Better computers use variable speed fans so they run at top speed only when the computer is really cranking
  2009, Carol Baroudi, Jeffrey Hill, Arnold Reinhold, Green IT For Dummies
  When we were playing at the top of our ability and really cranking, the whole thing could sound like a jet plane taking off in the club.
  2009, Mike Edison, I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, ...
  expected that the NVA and VC were in a position to dish out what they're dishing out, and the rumor mill is really cranking overtime.
  2011, P. L. Nelson, The Incessant Voice of War: The Black Rose Conspiracies, page 64
7. (intransitive, dated) To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.
  Quotations
  See how this river comes me cranking in.
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]

Definition of "crank"

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