Crank

How to spell crank

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce crank

What does crank mean?

1. nounA bent arm or handle that turns rotary motion into back-and-forth motion, or is used to wind a machine by hand.
2. verbTo start or operate something by turning a handle, or to turn it forcefully.
3. nounAn eccentric or bad-tempered person, especially one with odd fixed ideas.

Crank in a sentence

• noun

  The old engine had a metal crank for starting it by hand.

• verb

  You have to crank the handle several times before the motor catches.

• noun

  The letter was dismissed as the work of a crank with a grudge.

• noun

  He turned the crank to raise the window blind.

• verb

  They had to crank the tent poles upright in the wind.

• noun

  The neighbours considered him a harmless old crank.

Where does crank come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Crank comes from Old English cranc, an element preserved in crancstaef, the name for a weaver's tool, and it traces back to a Germanic root meaning to bend, twist, or curl up. The underlying idea of something bent or angled is what links every later sense: a mechanical crank is literally a bent arm or handle, an offset shape that turns straight pushing into circular motion. By the 1500s the word named the iron handle used to wind or turn machinery, and from there it spread to engines and bicycles. The figurative use for an odd or short-tempered person grew out of the notion of a twisted or crooked temperament, much as we still say someone is bent out of shape. The same bending idea sits behind the related word crinkle, which helps explain why crank keeps its plain, blunt spelling.

How the word is built

• crank (a single Germanic root meaning a bend or twist; no prefix or suffix)