noun.
A bent or vertical arm attached to or projecting at an angle from an axis at one end, and with provision for the application of power at the other, used for communicating circular motion, as in a grindstone, or for changing circular into reciprocating motion, as in a saw-mill, or reciprocating into circular motion, as in a steam-engine.
noun.
An iron brace for various purposes, such as the braces which support the lanterns on the poop-quarters of vessels.
noun.
An iron attached to the feet in curling, to prevent slipping.
noun.
An instrument of prison discipline, consisting of a small wheel, like the paddle-wheel of a steam-vessel, which, when the prisoner turns a handle outside, revolves in a box partially filled with gravel. The labor of turning it is more or less severe, according to the quantity of gravel.
noun.
A bend; a turn; a twist; a winding; an involution.
noun.
A twist or turn of speech; a conceit which consists in a grotesque or fantastic change of the form or meaning of a word.
noun.
An absurd or unreasonable action caused by a twist of judgment; a caprice; a whim; a crotchet; a vagary.
noun.
plural Pains; aches.
Nautical, liable to lurch or to be capsized, as a ship when she is too narrow or has not sufficient ballast to carry full sail: opposed to stiff. Also crank-sided.
Hence In a shaky or crazy condition; loose; disjointed.
noun.
A crank vessel; a vessel overmasted or badly ballasted.
Briskly; cheerfully; in a lively or sprightly manner.
To run in a winding course; bend; wind; turn.
To mark crosswise on (bread and butter), to please a child.
To make of the shape of a crank; bend into a crank shape.
To provide with a crank; attach a crank to.
To shackle; hamshackle (a horse).
Sick; ill; infirm; weak.
noun.
A sick person: first used with the epithet counterfeit, designating a person who feigned sickness or frenzy in order to wring money from the compassion or fears of the beholder. See etymology and quotations.
noun.
A person whose mind is ill-balanced or awry; one who lacks mental poise; one who is subject to crotchets, whims, caprices, or absurd or impracticable notions; especially, a person of this sort who takes up some one impracticable notion or project and urges it in season and out of season; a monomaniac.
Brisk: lively; jolly; sprightly; giddy; hence, aggressively positive or assured; self-assertive.
To creak.
To turn with a crank; turn (an engine) with a hand-crank.
noun.
A creaking, as of an ungreased wheel.
noun.
Figuratively, something inharmonious.
Crooked; bent; distorted: as, a crank hand; crank-handed.
Hard; difficult: as, a crank word.