• IPA: /kɹæŋk/

crank (comparative cranker, superlative crankest)

1. (slang) Strange, weird, odd.
2. Sick; unwell; infirm.
3. (nautical, of a ship) Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.

   • This ship is so crank and walty

     I fear our grave she will be!

   • 1833, Edgar Allan Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle

     The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank.

4. Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.

   • He who was, a little before, bedrid, […] was now crank and lusty.

   • If you strong electioners did not think you were among the elect, you would not be so crank about it.

crank (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.

   I grind my coffee by hand with a coffee grinder with a crank handle.

2. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.

   Yes, a crank was all it needed to start.

3. (archaic) Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.

   • So many turning cranks these have, so many crooks.

4. (informal) An ill-tempered or nasty person.

   Billy-Bob is a nasty old crank! He chased my cat away.

5. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim; crotchet; also, a fit of temper or passion.

   • Violent of temper; subject to sudden cranks.

6. (informal, British, dated in US) A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.

   Synonyms: kook, odd duck, weirdo, Thesaurus:strange person

   John is a crank because he talks to himself.

   • 1882 January 14, in Pall Mall Gazette:

     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.

7. (archaic, baseball, slang, 1800s) A baseball fan.
8. (informal) An advocate of a pseudoscience movement.

   Synonyms: crackpot

   That crank next door thinks he’s created cold fusion in his garage.

9. (US, slang) Synonym of methamphetamine#English|methamphetamine.

   Danny got abscesses from shooting all that bathtub crank.

10. (rare) A twist or turn in speech; a conceit consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
    • a. 1645, John Milton, “L'Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […] , London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moſely,  […], published 1645, OCLC 606951673 ↗, page 31 ↗:

      Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,

11. (obsolete) A sick person; an invalid.

    • Thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater.

12. (slang) A penis.

    Synonyms: cock, dick, Thesaurus:penis

• French: manivelle
• German: Kurbel
• Portuguese: manivela
• Russian: кривоши́п
• Spanish: manivela

• German: Kurbeln

• Russian: крюк

• German: (colloquial) Miesepeter
• Spanish: cascarrabias, maniático

• French: tordu, original
• German: Sonderling, (colloquial) Spinner, wunderlicher Kauz
• Russian: чуда́к

• Russian: фрик

crank (cranks, present participle cranking; past and past participle cranked)

1. (transitive) To turn by means of a crank.

   Motorists had to crank their engine by hand.

2. (intransitive) To turn a crank.

   He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

3. (intransitive, of a crank or similar) To turn.

   He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

4. (transitive) To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.

   I turn the key and crank the engine; yet it doesn't turn over

   Crank it up!

5. (intransitive) To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.

   Quit cranking about your spilt milk!

6. (intransitive) To be running at a high level of output or effort.

   By one hour into the shift, the boys were really cranking.

7. (intransitive, dated) To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act 3, scene 1]:

     See how this river comes me cranking in.

• German: ankurbeln

• German: kurbeln

1. Surname