crank

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“
But engines without a crank are almost always made single acting, perhaps from the effect of custom, as much as from any other reason, and are usually spoken of as such, though it is necessary to know that there are some deviations from the usual practice NATURE AND USES OF A VACUUM 6.

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Definitions (60)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (17)

  1. noun A device for transmitting rotary motion, consisting of a handle or arm attached at right angles to a shaft.
  2. noun A clever turn of speech; a verbal conceit: quips and cranks.
  3. noun A peculiar or eccentric idea or action.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (30)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (22)

  • If you think people would view you as a crank, a blowhard, or as someone who vastly overdoes it on the hyperbole, rewrite your post before hitting enter. —  The Volokh Conspiracy
  • The best part about this system is it is completely self-powering through either the sun or a crank which is fitted to the rear. —  TreeHugger
  • We may be sure that Robert's boat became very popular, and that turning the crank was a privilege in which each boy eagerly took his turn While still young, Robert began to paint pictures also. —  Stories of Later American History
  • The face of the crank should be about 3/8 inch away from the piston rod centre line. —  Things To Make
  • "Clarke's known as a crank, and he takes advantage of it to cover his doings. —  The Intriguers
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

pulley ·  fanatic ·  lever ·  madman ·  brake ·  axle ·  piston ·  gear ·  screw ·  armature ·  latch ·  clamp

Used in the same contextWord Family

crank:   cranks ·  cranked ·  cranking
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (13)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English cranc- (as in crancstæf, weaving implement).
  2. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (11)

  1. Not found in Middle English, except as in the prob. deriv. crank, n., q. v.; prob. ult. from Anglo-Saxon crincan, preterit cranc (also cringan, preterit crang), fall, yield, succumb, apparently orig. bend, bow; cf. crank, v., and see crinch, cringe. The words here given under the form crank, though here separated as to sense and historical relations into six groups, are more or less involved in meaning and cross-associations, and appear to be ult. from the same verb-root. On account of the dialectal, colloquial, technical, or slang character of most of the senses, the records in literature are scanty, only one group, that of crank, appearing in Middle English or Anglo-Saxon
  2. Not found in Middle English, but apparently in part orig. a secondary form of crink (in crinkle), ult. of Anglo-Saxon crincan, preterit cranc, fall, yield, orig. bend, bow; crank, crankle, being related to *crink (crinck, cringe), crinkle, as cramp, crumple, to crimp, crimple. In part the verb crank depends on the noun. See crank, a., and crank, n.
  3. from crank, a., or crank, v.
  4. from Middle English cranke; perhaps from Anglo-Saxon *cranc, in comp. *cranc-stæf, an unauthenticated form in Somner, defined as “some kind of weavers instrument”: apparently from crank, a., bent, crooked, which is, however, not recorded in Middle English or Anglo-Saxon: see crank, a.
  5. from crank, n.
  6. Not found in this sense in Middle English or Anglo-Saxon, the alleged Anglo-Saxon *cranc, weak, infirm, being unauthenticated, and *crang, as adjective, dead, killed, an error; first in early modern English, the noun (II., 1) being a cant word, indicating its origin from the D.: from Middle Dutch kranck, weak, feeble, infirm, sick, also, of things, weak, poor, insipid, Dutch krank, sick, ill, poor, = OFries. kronk, cronc, North Friesic cronc, sick, = Middle Low German krank, weak, infirm, miserable, bad, sick, Low German krank, sick, = Old High German *chranch (not recorded, but cf. deriv. *chranchalōn, krankolōn, become weak), Middle High German kranc, weak, thin, slender, poor, bad, small, later especially weak in body, feeble, sick, German krank, sick (whence, from G. or Low German, Icelandic krankr, also krangr = Norwegian Swedish Danish krank, ill, sick); the adjective being also used as a noun, Middle Dutch kranck, etc., or with inflection, Middle Dutch krancke, Dutch kranke = German kranke, etc., a sick person, a patient; whence the noun used in English, orig. with the epithet counterfeit, in ref. to persons who feigned sickness or frenzy (cf. Dutch krank-hoofdig, krankzinnig, crazy) in order to wring money from the compassion or fears of the beholder; prob. from the preterit of an orig. Teutonic verb preserved only in Anglo-Saxon crincan, preterit cranc (also cringan, preterit crang), fall, yield, succumb, orig. bend, bow, to which also crank, crank, crank, and crank are referred: see crank, etc., and crinch, cringe.
  7. Not in early use, but prob. another application of the orig. crank, bent, ult. from Anglo-Saxon crincan, preterit cranc, fall: see crank and crank. Cf. Dutch krengen = Swedish kränga = Danish krænge, heave down, heel, lurch, as a ship; of the same ult. origin.
  8. Early modern English also cranck; a dial. word, not in early use; prob. a particular use of crank, liable to be overset, shaky: see crank, and cf. crank.
  9. from crank, a.
  10. Perhaps in part imitative (cf. crack, creak), but apparently associated with crank, with allusion to the creaking of a crank or windlass.
  11. from crank, v.
 

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