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# crank

«crank» in Mova's school dictionary: **A handle or bar bent at a right angle that you turn round…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a crank, cranks); verb (crank, cranks, cranked, cranking)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (noun) A handle or bar bent at a right angle that you turn round and round to make a machine work, like on an old car engine, a pencil sharpener or a jack-in-the-box. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#m1)

2) (noun, informal) A person with strange, fixed ideas who will not listen to evidence: «a crank who thinks the Earth is flat». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#m2)

3) (noun, US, informal) A grumpy, bad-tempered person. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#m3)

4) (verb) To turn a crank to start or move something: «crank the handle». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#m4)

5) (verb, informal) Crank up: to turn up the volume, heat or power: «crank up the music». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#m5)

6) (slang, US) Crank: a slang name for an illegal drug (methamphetamine) — dangerous and against the law. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#m6)

### sense in the lessons

In science and D&T lessons about simple machines, a crank turns rotation into back-and-forth motion (and the other way), as in bicycle pedals (the cranks) or a wind-up toy. In stories and comedy, a «crank call» is a prank phone call. Phrases: «crank the handle», «crank up», «crank out» (produce lots quickly), «crank call», «a bit of a crank».

### examples

- In the old days, drivers had to crank the engine by hand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x1)
- The pedals of a bike are attached to cranks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x2)
- Turn the crank and the music box plays. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x3)
- Can you crank up the heating? It's freezing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x4)
- Some cranks still claim the Earth is flat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x5)
- Grandpa is a bit of a crank before his morning coffee. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x6)
- The factory cranks out thousands of toys a day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x7)
- Don't make crank calls; it is mean and can be illegal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/#x8)

### note

Countable noun: a crank, cranks. «Cranky» (adjective) means grumpy or irritable. Calling a person a «crank» is unkind. The drug sense is US slang; illegal drugs are dangerous. Related: «crankshaft», the part of an engine that turns.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «crank» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crank/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.