English Explanatory Dictionary

crank

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Hard; difficult.
  2. Strange; weird; odd.
  3. Bent; twisted; crooked; distorted; out of repair.
  4. Sick; unwell.
  5. Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.
  6. Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.
noun
  1. An ailment, ache.
  2. An ill-tempered or nasty person.
  3. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;
  4. A fit of temper or passion.
  5. A person who is considered strange or odd by others, and may behave in unconventional ways.
  6. An amateur in science or other technical subjects who persistently advocates flawed theories.
  7. A baseball fan.
  8. A sick person; an invalid.
noun
  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.
  2. Clipping of crankshaft.
  3. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.
  4. Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
  5. Synonym of methamphetamine.
  6. A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
  7. The penis.
verb
  1. To turn by means of a crank.
  2. To turn a crank.
  3. To turn.
  4. To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.
  5. To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.
  6. To be running at a high level of output or effort.
  7. To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A small village in Rainford parish, St Helens borough, Merseyside, England (OS grid ref SJ5099).

Pronunciation

/ˈkɹæŋk/ [ˈkʰɹʷæŋk] /ˈkɹeɪ̯ŋk/ [ˈkʰɹʷeɪ̯ŋk] ~ /ˈkɹɛ̃ŋk/ [ˈkʰɹʷɛ̃ŋk] en-us-crank.ogg

Word forms

crank cranker crankest cranks cranking cranked crunk

Etymology

From Dutch or Low German krank, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz (“bent; weak”). Cognate with Scots crank, krank, German krank (“sick”).

Synonyms

infirm kook odd duck weirdo crackpot bizarro coot crank eccentric freak glaik hard case live one nutbag nutbar nutcase nutter oddball oddity odd bod odd fish queerdo queer fish rum strange bird strange fish strangeling wack wacko weirdie weirdling wild man wingnut methamphetamine cock dick anaconda baloney pony bald-headed hermit banana birdie bobby boonga cack choad choda chode chopper cigar corey cucumber custard launcher D dicklet diddle diddly dingaling ding-a-ling ding-dong dinger

Derived words

crankish crankism crank letter crankness cranksome yank one's crank bell crank bellcrank crank angle crank angle degree crank arm crank axle crankbait crank bug crank call crank caller crankcase crankery crank handle crankhandle crank it crankle crankless crankman crank off crank one out crank one's hog crank out crank pin crankpin crank science crankset crankshaft crank shaft crankstart crank start crank the handle crank the hog crank up crankwalk crankweb crank wheel cranky flycrank hand crank noncranking overcrank turn someone's crank undercrank

Translations

Arabic: مِرْفَق Bulgarian: коляно Bulgarian: манивела Catalan: maneta Chinese Mandarin: 曲柄 Czech: klika Dutch: zwengel Dutch: krukas Esperanto: kranko Finnish: kampi Finnish: veivi French: manivelle German: Kurbel Greek: στρόφαλος Hungarian: kurbli Irish: crangaid Italian: manovella Macedonian: ку́рбла Norman: chanolle Norwegian Bokmål: sveiv Plautdietsch: Krenkj Portuguese: manivela Romanian: manivelă coarbă Russian: кривоши́п Slovak: kľuka Spanish: manivela Spanish: cigüeñuela Spanish: rabil Spanish: biela Swedish: vev Turkish: kol Turkish: manivela Vietnamese: giò đĩa Finnish: pyöräyttää
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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