crank

/kɹæŋk/

IPA: /K R AE1 NG K/

noun
  1. 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.

    I grind my coffee by hand with a coffee grinder with a crank handle.

  2. 2

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

    Yes, a crank was all it needed to start.

  3. 3

    Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.

  4. 4

    An ill-tempered or nasty person.

    Billy-Bob is a nasty old crank! He chased my cat away.

  5. 5

    A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;

  6. 6

    A fit of temper or passion.

  7. 7

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

    John is a crank because he talks to himself.

  8. 8

    (1800s) A baseball fan.

  9. 9

    An advocate of a pseudoscience movement.

    That crank next door thinks he’s created cold fusion in his garage.

  10. 10

    A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.

  11. 11

    A sick person; an invalid.

  12. 12

    A penis.

verb
  1. 1

    To turn by means of a crank.

    Motorists had to crank their engine by hand.

  2. 2

    To turn a crank.

    He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

  3. 3

    (of a crank or similar) To turn.

    He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

  4. 4

    To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.

    Crank it up!

  5. 5

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

    Quit cranking about your spilt milk!

  6. 6

    To be running at a high level of output or effort.

    By one hour into the shift, the boys were really cranking.

  7. 7

    To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

adjective
  1. 1

    Strange, weird, odd.

  2. 2

    Sick; unwell

    syn:infirm
  3. 3

    (of a ship) Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.

  4. 4

    Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.

Synonyms

noun
  1. 1

    A highly addictive phenethylamine stimulant drug, similar to cocaine. Its systematic (IUPAC) name is (S)-N-methyl-1-phenylpropan-2-amine.

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crank, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/methamphetamine