CRANK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does crank mean? 

• CRANK (noun)
  The noun CRANK has 4 senses:

1. a bad-tempered person

2. a whimsically eccentric person

3. an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant

4. a hand tool consisting of a rotating shaft with parallel handle

  Familiarity information: CRANK used as a noun is uncommon.

• CRANK (adjective)
  The adjective CRANK has 1 sense:

1. (used of boats) inclined to heel over easily under sail

  Familiarity information: CRANK used as an adjective is very rare.

• CRANK (verb)
  The verb CRANK has 5 senses:

1. travel along a zigzag path

2. start by cranking

3. rotate with a crank

4. fasten with a crank

5. bend into the shape of a crank

  Familiarity information: CRANK used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRANK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A bad-tempered person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

churl; crank; crosspatch; grouch; grump

Hypernyms ("crank" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crank"):

crab; crabby person (a quarrelsome grouch)

fire-eater; hothead (a belligerent grouch)

misanthrope; misanthropist (someone who dislikes people in general)

Derivation:

cranky (easily irritated or annoyed)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A whimsically eccentric person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

crackpot; crank; fruitcake; nut; nut case; screwball

Hypernyms ("crank" is a kind of...):

eccentric; eccentric person; flake; geek; oddball (a person with an unusual or odd personality)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

chalk; chicken feed; crank; deoxyephedrine; glass; ice; meth; methamphetamine; methamphetamine hydrochloride; Methedrine; shabu; trash

Hypernyms ("crank" is a kind of...):

amphetamine; pep pill; speed; upper (a central nervous system stimulant that increases energy and decreases appetite; used to treat narcolepsy and some forms of depression)

controlled substance (a drug or chemical substance whose possession and use are controlled by law)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A hand tool consisting of a rotating shaft with parallel handle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

crank; starter

Hypernyms ("crank" is a kind of...):

hand tool (a tool used with workers' hands)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crank"):

crank handle; starting handle (crank used to start an engine)

Derivation:

crank (bend into the shape of a crank)

crank (rotate with a crank)

• CRANK (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used of boats) inclined to heel over easily under sail

Synonyms:

crank; cranky; tender; tippy

Similar:

unstable (lacking stability or fixity or firmness)

Domain category:

boat (a small vessel for travel on water)

• CRANK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they crank    ... he / she / it cranks   
Past simple: cranked   
Past participle: cranked   
-ing form: cranking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Travel along a zigzag path

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

crank; zigzag

Context example:

The river zigzags through the countryside

Hypernyms (to "crank" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

"Crank" entails doing...:

turn (change orientation or direction, also in the abstract sense)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Start by cranking

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

crank; crank up

Context example:

crank up the engine

Hypernyms (to "crank" is one way to...):

start; start up (get going or set in motion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

These cars won't crank

Sense 3

Meaning:

Rotate with a crank

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

crank; crank up

Hypernyms (to "crank" is one way to...):

circumvolve; rotate (cause to turn on an axis or center)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

crank (a hand tool consisting of a rotating shaft with parallel handle)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Fasten with a crank

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "crank" is one way to...):

fasten; fix; secure (cause to be firmly attached)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Bend into the shape of a crank

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "crank" is one way to...):

bend; deform; flex; turn; twist (cause (a plastic object) to assume a crooked or angular form)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

crank (a hand tool consisting of a rotating shaft with parallel handle)

 Context examples 

That cranks up the amount of energy available to fuel the processes responsible for atmospheric escape.

(Mars Mission Sheds Light on Habitability of Distant Planets, NASA)

I got it broke in the Bay, but the surgeon has fished it and spliced it, though it’s a bit crank yet.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You probably didn’t know that instead of last month’s spotlight on you dimming, it was just cranking up!

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It was an improved crank windlass, and the purchase it gave was enormous.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The PAC produces the molecule cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) when exposed to blue light, which in turn cranks up the glucose-stimulated production of insulin in the beta cell.

(Researchers Develop Insulin-Producing Cells Activated by Light for Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In another, the ground was cumbered with rusty iron monsters of steam-boilers, wheels, cranks, pipes, furnaces, paddles, anchors, diving-bells, windmill-sails, and I know not what strange objects, accumulated by some speculator, and grovelling in the dust, underneath which—having sunk into the soil of their own weight in wet weather—they had the appearance of vainly trying to hide themselves.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There were a dozen requests for autographs—he knew them at sight; there were professional begging letters; and there were letters from cranks, ranging from the man with a working model of perpetual motion, and the man who demonstrated that the surface of the earth was the inside of a hollow sphere, to the man seeking financial aid to purchase the Peninsula of Lower California for the purpose of communist colonization.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

These varying conditions have given MAVEN the opportunity to observe Mars’ atmospheric escape getting cranked up and dialed down.

(Mars Mission Sheds Light on Habitability of Distant Planets, NASA)