different between crawk vs crank

English

Verb

crawk (third-person singular simple present crawks, present participle crawking, simple past and past participle crawked)

1. To caw (squawk).

Anagrams

• wrack

English

Etymology

From Middle English cronk, cranke, from Old English cranc, from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz (“bent; weak”).

Cognate with German krank (“sick”), krank (“sick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Adjective

crank (comparative cranker, superlative crankest)

1. (slang) Strange, weird, odd.
2. Sick; unwell

   Synonym: infirm

3. (nautical, of a ship) Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.
   • 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Phantom Ship

     This ship is so crank and walty

     I fear our grave she will be!

   • 1833, Edgar Allan Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle

     The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank.

4. Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.
   • 1548, Nicolas Udall, The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente:

     He who was a little before bedred […] was now cranke and lustie.

   • 1856, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp

     If you strong electioners did not think you were among the elect, you would not be so crank about it.

Translations

Noun

crank (plural cranks)

1. 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.
   1. Clipping of crankshaft.
2. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.

3. (archaic) Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, The Cantos of Mutabilitie Canto 7

     So many turning cranks these have, so many crooks.

4. (informal) An ill-tempered or nasty person.

5. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;
6. a fit of temper or passion.
   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia

     Violent of temper; subject to sudden cranks.

7. (informal, Britain, dated in US) A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.

   Synonyms: kook, odd duck, weirdo; see also Thesaurus:strange person

   • 1882 January 14, in Pall Mall Gazette:

     Persons whom the Americans since Guiteau’s trial have begun to designate as ‘cranks’—that is to say, persons of disordered mind, in whom the itch of notoriety supplies the lack of any higher ambition.
8. (archaic, baseball, slang, 1800s) A baseball fan.
9. (informal) An advocate of a pseudoscience movement.

   Synonym: (US) crackpot

10. (US, slang) Synonym of methamphetamine.

11. (rare) A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
12. (obsolete) A sick person; an invalid.
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

      Thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater.

13. (slang) A penis.

    Synonyms: cock, dick; see also Thesaurus:penis

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

crank (third-person singular simple present cranks, present participle cranking, simple past and past participle cranked)

1. (transitive) To turn by means of a crank.

2. (intransitive) To turn a crank.

3. (intransitive, of a crank or similar) To turn.

4. (transitive) To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.

5. (intransitive) To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.

6. (intransitive) To be running at a high level of output or effort.
7. (intransitive, dated) To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• crank (mechanism) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Ranck, ranck