▪ I. cranny, n.1
(ˈkrænɪ)
Forms: (5 crayne), 5–7 crany, 6–7 cranie, craney, 7 crannie, -ey, (craine), 7– cranny.
[app. related to F. cran (in Cotgr. cren) ‘a notch, cleft, niche, or jag’, a crack in metal, a transverse fissure in strata, etc.; but the etymology and form-history present many difficulties.
F. cren, cran is in Walloon cren, and is associated with Rumansch crenna, Lombard crena. It is referred by Darmesteter to a pop. L. *crennum, supposed to be related to *crena a word formerly attributed to Pliny, but now considered as a textual error. No early example of the French word is known [see however crenel]; Palsgrave translates ‘cranny’ by crevasse. The form of the English word makes its French derivation doubtful, as this does not account for the termination. The form crayne in Promp. Parv. is a scribal error for cranye (see ref. under Crauas), and craine in Minsheu is apparently merely copied from it.]
A small narrow opening or hole; a chink, crevice, crack, fissure.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 100 Cranye [erroneously Crayne] or crayues [Pynson crany or craues], rima, rimula, riscus. Ibid. 101 Crauas supra in Crany. c 1460 Play Sacram. 710 Here the owyn must ryve asunder & blede owt at y⊇ cranys & an Image appere owt w{supt} woundis bledyng. 1530 Palsgr. 210/2 Crany or ryft, cravasse. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 560 Peeping in at a cranny of his chamber door. 1617 Minsheu Ductor, Craine or cleft, vide Cranie..A Cranie, craine, or cleft. 1641 Wilkins Math. Magick ii. i. (1648) 152 Which does usually blow in at every chink or cranny. 1672 Cave Prim. Chr. iii. ii. (1673) 281 No light but what peeped in from a few little cranies. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. viii. 166, I saw the water ooze in at several crannies. 1836 Marryat Japhet xlv. 89 After examining every nook and cranny they could think of. 1865 Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scot. xii. 321 Swallows build their nests in the crannies of the cliff. |
| fig. ? c 1600 Distracted Emp. i. i. Bullen in O. Pl. III. 181 Some..that neare [= ne'er] looke Into the chynckes and crannyes of the state. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 152 Some lurking vanity stealing slily in through crannies where one would least expect it. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. i. vii. §5 Into every crevice and cranny of human life. |
▪ II. cranny, n.2 Glass Manuf.
[Origin unknown.]
The smooth iron rod on which the bulb of plastic glass is rolled in order to form a neck, in blowing crown-glass.
| 1662 Merrett tr. Neri's Art of Glass 365 Cranny is a round Iron whereon they roul the Glass to make the neck of it small. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Cranny (Glass Manufacture), a tool for forming the necks of glass bottles. |
▪ III. cranny, a.
A dial. by-form of cranky.
| 1674–9 Ray N.C. Words, Cranny, as a cranny lad, a jovial, brisk, lusty lad. Chesh. [Hence in Bailey 1721, Grose, etc.] 1847–78 Halliwell, Cranny, quick, giddy, thoughtless. 1887 S. Cheshire Gloss., Cranny adj., simple, foolish; s. simpleton. |
▪ IV. ˈcranny, v.
[f. cranny n.1]
† 1. intr. To open in crannies or chinks. Obs.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 100 Cranyyn', rimo. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. ii. (1593) 35 The ground did cranie everywhere, and light did pierce to hell. 1607 W. Barksted Mirrha (1876) 51 The ground did crannie. |
2. To penetrate into crannies. rare.
| 1816 Byron Ch. Har. ii. xlvii, All tenantless, save to the crannying wind. 1873 Blackmore Cradock N. vi. (1881) 21 Eyes that crannied not, like a crane's bill, into the family crocks and dust-bin. |