What is crank?

More definitions of "crank":

• (noun): A bad-tempered person.
  Synonyms: grouch, grump, churl, crosspatch

• (verb): Bend into the shape of a crank.

• (verb): Travel along a zigzag path.
  Synonyms: zigzag

• (noun): A whimsically eccentric person.
  Synonyms: crackpot, nut, nut case, nutcase, fruitcake, screwball

• (verb): Start by cranking.
  Example: "Crank up the engine"
  Synonyms: crank up

• (noun): A hand tool consisting of a rotating shaft with parallel handle.
  Synonyms: starter

• (adj): (used of boats) inclined to heel over easily under sail.
  Synonyms: cranky, tender, tippy

• (noun): Amphetamine used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant.
  Synonyms: methamphetamine, methamphetamine hydrochloride, Methedrine, meth, deoxyephedrine, chalk, chicken feed, glass, ice, shabu, trash

• (verb): Fasten with a crank.

Famous quotes containing the word crank:

“The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

“I review novels to make money, because it is easier for a sluggard to write an article a fortnight than a book a year, because the writer is soothed by the opiate of action, the crank by posing as a good journalist, and having an airhole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)