Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being cranky, in any sense of the word.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Crankness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being cranky

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fussy and eccentric disposition

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cranky +‎ -ness

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word crankiness.

Examples

  • Tarek Fatah jumped the shark quite some time ago, but his increasing crankiness is still news.

    Archive 2009-10-01 2009

  • Andy, my crankiness comes from the fact that so many "picture books for older readers" are forced by the nature of the form to take an either cursory or superficial approach to problems "possibly not resolvable in a thirty-two page format," as former HB editor Anita Silvey put it.

    "Mad Bitches Against Gay People" Roger Sutton 2007

  • What you call crankiness in old people, so trying to the younger generations, does not arise from natural hatefulness of disposition and a released congenital selfishness, but from atrophying glands, and, no doubt, a subtle rebellion against nature for consigning men to ineptitude when they should be entering upon their best period of usefulness, and philosophical as well as active enjoyment of life.

    Black Oxen Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton 1902

  • Poets use language sometimes to tell horrible truths or offer recipes for healing – Ms. Giovanni’s wit, courage and just plain crankiness have served her well over the years, and now those same qualities will help her students at Virginia Tech. These are her gifts.

    Ms. G in the Pulpit. : Patricia Smith : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • But it is more likely that our crankiness was the result of the supper we had eaten the previous night.

    The Story Girl Lucy Maud 1911

  • But it is more likely that our crankiness was the result of the supper we had eaten the previous night.

    The Story Girl 1908

  • Tim Stanley has noticed that Dr Paul is repeatedly showing signs of what I possibly not he would call crankiness in his answers. @timothy_stanley Paul's very frisky tonight.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Jon Swaine 2012

  • If you will read through the thread again, you will notice that it was you who raised the issue of "crankiness", not me.

    Best. Title. Ever! 2006

  • With us there was no lack of mutual respect, except in matters of faith and practice; but he no more tolerated my "crankiness," lunacy -- perhaps imbecility -- in withholding food from the sick than I his paganism in enforcing it.

    The No Breakfast Plan and the Fasting-Cure Edward Hooker Dewey

  • My father was perhaps irritated by the slightly patronizing tone which Turgénieff adopted from the very outset of their acquaintance; and Turgénieff was irritated by my father's "crankiness," which distracted him from "his proper métier, literature."

    Reminiscences of Tolstoy 1914

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.