crank

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A device for transmitting rotary motion, consisting of a handle or arm attached at right angles to a shaft.
2. n. A clever turn of speech; a verbal conceit: quips and cranks.
3. n. A peculiar or eccentric idea or action.
4. n. Informal A grouchy person.
5. n. Informal An eccentric person, especially one who is unduly zealous.
6. n. Slang Methamphetamine.
7. v. To start or operate (an engine, for example) by or as if by turning a handle.
8. v. To move or operate (a window, for example) by or as if by turning a handle.
9. v. To make into the shape of a crank; bend.
10. v. To provide with a handle that is used in turning.
11. v. To turn a handle.
12. v. To wind in a zigzagging course.
13. adj. Of, being, or produced by an eccentric person: a crank letter; a crank phone call.
14. crank out To produce, especially mechanically and rapidly: cranks out memo after memo.
15. crank up To cause to start or get started as if by turning a crank: cranked up a massive publicity campaign.
16. crank up To cause to intensify, as in volume or force: cranks up the sound on the stereo.
17. adj. Nautical Liable to capsize; unstable.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Crooked; bent; distorted: as, a crank hand; crank-handed.
2. Hard; difficult: as, a crank word.
3. To run in a winding course; bend; wind; turn.
4. To mark crosswise on (bread and butter), to please a child.
5. n. A bend; a turn; a twist; a winding; an involution.
6. n. A twist or turn of speech; a conceit which consists in a grotesque or fantastic change of the form or meaning of a word.
7. n. An absurd or unreasonable action caused by a twist of judgment; a caprice; a whim; a crotchet; a vagary.
8. n. plural Pains; aches.
9. n. A bent or vertical arm attached to or projecting at an angle from an axis at one end, and with provision for the application of power at the other, used for communicating circular motion, as in a grindstone, or for changing circular into reciprocating motion, as in a saw-mill, or reciprocating into circular motion, as in a steam-engine. The single crank can be used only on the end of an axis. The double crank is employed when it is necessary that the axis should be extended on both sides of the point at which the reciprocating motion is applied. An exemplification of this arrangement is afforded by the machinery of steam-vessels. The bell-crank , so called from its ordinary use in bell-hanging, performs a function totally different from that of the others, being used merely to change the direction of a reciprocating motion, as from a horizontal to a vertical line.
10. n. An iron brace for various purposes, such as the braces which support the lanterns on the poop-quarters of vessels.
11. n. An iron attached to the feet in curling, to prevent slipping.
12. n. An instrument of prison discipline, consisting of a small wheel, like the paddle-wheel of a steam-vessel, which, when the prisoner turns a handle outside, revolves in a box partially filled with gravel. The labor of turning it is more or less severe, according to the quantity of gravel.
13. To make of the shape of a crank; bend into a crank shape.
14. To provide with a crank; attach a crank to.
15. To shackle; hamshackle (a horse).
16. Sick; ill; infirm; weak.
17. n. A sick person: first used with the epithet counterfeit, designating a person who feigned sickness or frenzy in order to wring money from the compassion or fears of the beholder. See etymology and quotations.
18. n. A person whose mind is ill-balanced or awry; one who lacks mental poise; one who is subject to crotchets, whims, caprices, or absurd or impracticable notions; especially, a person of this sort who takes up some one impracticable notion or project and urges it in season and out of season; a monomaniac.
19. Nautical, liable to lurch or to be capsized, as a ship when she is too narrow or has not sufficient ballast to carry full sail: opposed to stiff. Also crank-sided.
20. Hence In a shaky or crazy condition; loose; disjointed.
21. n. A crank vessel; a vessel overmasted or badly ballasted.
22. Brisk: lively; jolly; sprightly; giddy; hence, aggressively positive or assured; self-assertive.
23. Briskly; cheerfully; in a lively or sprightly manner.
24. To creak.
25. n. A creaking, as of an ungreased wheel.
26. n. Figuratively, something inharmonious.
27. To turn with a crank; turn (an engine) with a hand-crank. This is usually done to draw in and compress the charge in a gas-engine so that it will be of the desired composition under pressure and ready to be ignited.

Wiktionary

1. adj. slang strange, weird, odd
2. adj. nautical, of a ship Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo, or because of insufficient ballast
3. n. 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.
4. n. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.
5. n. archaic Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
6. n. informal An ill-tempered or nasty person
7. n. informal, UK, dated in US A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.
8. n. informal An advocate of a pseudoscience movement.
9. n. US, slang methamphetamine.
10. n. rare A twist or turn in speech; a conceit consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
11. v. transitive To turn by means of a crank.
12. v. intransitive To turn a crank.
13. v. intransitive To turn.
14. v. transitive To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.
15. v. intransitive To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.
16. v. intransitive To be running at a high level of output or effort.
17. v. intransitive, dated To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Mach.) A bent portion of an axle, or shaft, or an arm keyed at right angles to the end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. See bell crank.
2. n. Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
3. n. A twist or turn in speech; a conceit consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
4. n. Prov. Eng. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim; crotchet; also, a fit of temper or passion.
5. n. colloq. A person full of crotchets; one given to fantastic or impracticable projects; one whose judgment is perverted in respect to a particular matter.
6. n. obsolete A sick person; an invalid.
7. adj. Prov. Eng. Sick; infirm.
8. adj. (Naut.) Liable to careen or be overset, as a ship when she is too narrow, or has not sufficient ballast, or is loaded too high, to carry full sail.
9. adj. Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.
10. v. To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant
2. v. fasten with a crank
3. n. a whimsically eccentric person
4. adj. (used of boats) inclined to heel over easily under sail
5. v. travel along a zigzag path
6. v. rotate with a crank
7. v. bend into the shape of a crank
8. n. a bad-tempered person
9. n. a hand tool consisting of a rotating shaft with parallel handle
10. v. start by cranking