crank

noun

/kræŋk/

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(disapproving) a person with ideas that other people find strange synonym eccentric
- Vegans are no longer dismissed as cranks.
- Everybody famous gets crank calls and letters.
Topics Personal qualitiesc2
(North American English) a person who easily gets angry or annoyed
- The old crank next door can’t stand the sound of our lawnmower.
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a bar and handle in the shape of an L that you pull or turn to produce movement in a machine, etc.Topics Engineeringc2

Word Originnoun sense 3 Old English cranc (recorded in crancstæf, denoting a weaver's implement), related to crincan ‘bend, yield, fall in battle’, of Germanic origin .

crank

verb

/kræŋk/

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they crank	/kræŋk/ /kræŋk/
he / she / it cranks	/kræŋks/ /kræŋks/
past simple cranked	/kræŋkt/ /kræŋkt/
past participle cranked	/kræŋkt/ /kræŋkt/
-ing form cranking	/ˈkræŋkɪŋ/ /ˈkræŋkɪŋ/

Phrasal Verbs

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crank something (up) to make something turn or move by using a crank
- to crank an engine
- (figurative) He has a limited time to crank the reforms into action.
Topics Engineeringc2
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
Crank is used with these nouns as the object:
engine
See full entry
Word Originverb Old English cranc (recorded in crancstæf, denoting a weaver's implement), related to crincan ‘bend, yield, fall in battle’, of Germanic origin .