crank

Meanings

Adjective

• Strange, weird, odd.
• Sick; unwell
• Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.
• Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.

Noun

• 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.
• The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.
• Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
• An ill-tempered or nasty person.
• A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;
• a fit of temper or passion.
• A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.
• A baseball fan.
• An advocate of a pseudoscience movement.
• Synonym of methamphetamine.
• A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
• A sick person; an invalid.
• A penis.

Verb

• To turn by means of a crank.
• To turn a crank.
• To turn.
• To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.
• To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.
• To be running at a high level of output or effort.
• To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

Origin

• From Middle English cronk, cranke, from Old English cranc, from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz.
• Cognate with German krank, Dutch krank.