crank

Etymology

From Middle English cronk, cranke, from Old English cranc, from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz (“bent; weak”). Cognate with German krank (“sick”), Dutch krank (“sick”).

adj

1. (slang) Strange, weird, odd.
2. Sick; unwell.
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! 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.
   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

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.
   1. Clipping of crankshaft.
2. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.
   Yes, a crank was all it needed to start.
   Give it a forceful crank.
   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.
   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.
   Billy-Bob is a nasty old crank! He chased my cat away.
5. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;
6. a fit of temper or passion.
7. (informal, Britain, dated in US) A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.
   John is a crank because he talks to himself.
   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. January 14 1882, Pall Mall Gazette
   The raw meat cranks are in dead earnest. They think that raw food is the manna of heaven. July 19, 1901, “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
   That crank next door thinks he’s created cold fusion in his garage.
10. (US, slang) Synonym of methamphetamine.
    Danny got abscesses from shooting all that bathtub crank.
11. (rare) A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
12. (obsolete) A sick person; an invalid.
13. (slang) The penis.
    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

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.
   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.