FluentPlex

crank

/kɹæŋk/ verb C2
  1. To turn by means of a crank. (transitive) · Motorists had to crank their engine by hand.
  2. To turn a crank. (intransitive) · He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.
  3. To turn. (intransitive) · He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.
  4. To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank. (transitive) · I turn the key and crank the engine; yet it doesn't turn over· Crank it up!
  5. To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining. (intransitive) · Quit cranking about your spilt milk!
  6. To be running at a high level of output or effort. (intransitive) · By one hour into the shift, the boys were really cranking.
  7. To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn. (dated, intransitive)

He/she/it cranks · Past cranked · Past participle cranked · -ing form cranking

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Verb forms

Base form
crank
He/she/it
cranks
Past
cranked
Past participle
cranked
-ing form
cranking

From the library

Lynde says that her father is a perfect old crank, and meaner than second skimmings.
Anne of Green Gables, p. 251 · C1
Old Frankland the crank?”
The Hound of the Baskervilles, p. 136 · C1
Every hour, she cranked the heavy iron weights that kept the lens turning.
The Keeper's Daughter, p. 1 · B2

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.