▪ I. cranky, a.1
(ˈkræŋkɪ)
[A comparatively modern formation, covering a group of senses that hang but loosely together, and have various associations with crank n.2 and n.3, crank a.2 and a.3.]
(The order here followed is merely provisional.)
1. Sickly, in weak health, infirm in body; = crank a.3 3. dial.
| 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss., Cranky, ailing, sickly; from the dutch crank, sick. N[orth]. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Cranky, ailing, sickly. [So in dial. Glossaries of Cumberland, Whitby, Holderness, Leicestersh., Berkshire; W. Somerset has crankety; in others prob. omitted as being a general word.] 1891 Science (N.Y.) 21 Aug. 102/2 The vigorous sheep being constantly drafted away for sale..these ‘cranky’ sheep (as they came to be called) were left behind. |
2. Naut. = crank a.2
| 1861 Wynter Soc. Bees 358 ‘Beg pardon, sir, but the boat is very cranky..if you goes on so, she will be over.’ 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 126 The craft is cranky. |
3. Out of order, out of gear, working badly; shaky, crazy; = crank a.3 4.
| 1862 Smiles Engineers III. 90 It was constantly getting out of order..at length it became so cranky that the horses were usually sent out after it to bring it along. 1863 Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial., ‘Don't sit on that chair, it is cranky.’ 1888 Berkshire Gloss., Cranky..for machinery, out of gear; for a structure, in bad repair, likely to give way. |
4. Of capricious or wayward temper, difficult to please; cross-tempered, awkward; ‘cross’.
| 1821 Blackw. Mag. IX. 82 Cranky Newport, not annoyed with νοῦς. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop vii, That his friend appeared to be rather ‘cranky’ in point of temper. 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles xv. 151 He got plaguy cranky of late; wouldn't come down with the money. 1876 C. M. Yonge Womankind xxiii. 199 We view our maids as cranky self-willed machines for getting our work done. [In dial. Glossaries of Cumberland, Whitby, Holderness, Leicester.] |
5. Mentally out of gear; crotchety, ‘queer’; subject to whims or ‘cranks’; eccentric or peculiar in notions or behaviour. Cf. crank n.2 4, 5.
| 1850 Dickens Poor Man's Tale of Patent (Househ. Wds. 19 Oct. 70), I said, ‘William Butcher..You are sometimes cranky’. 1863 C. Reade Hard Cash II. 113 He [a mad-doctor] had..almost invariably found the patient had been cranky for years. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., Cranky ways, crotchets. 1879 G. Macdonald P. Faber II. iv. 66 A cranky, visionary, talkative man. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. July 11, Butler makes a long fight over his cranky notions. |
6. Full of twists or windings, crooked; full of corners or crannies. Cf. crank n.2 1, 2.
| 1836 W. S. Landor Wks. 1876 VIII. 94 No curling dell, no cranky nook. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., Cranky roads, crooked roads. 1887 Jessopp Arcady iii. 71 Old closets, dim passages, and cranky holes and corners. |
7. (See quot.) dial. Cf. crank v.1 2.
| 1788 Marshall Yorksh. Gloss., Cranky, checked [i.e. striped] linen; cranky apron, a checked-linen apron. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Cranky adj., of stout old-fashioned linen for housewives' aprons, with a blue stripe on a white ground. |
▪ II. ˈcranky, a.2 dial.
[f. crank a.1 + -y]
Brisk, merry, lively, disposed to exult; = crank a.1
| 1811 Willan W. Riding Gloss. (E.D.S.), Crank, Cranky, jocose, sprightly, exulting. 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 407 Most of the first chop men cut and run, as they always do in such like cases, considerable cranky. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss., Cranky, merry, sportive. How cranky the boy is! he's full of quirks and pranks. [In dial. Glossaries of Sussex and Hampshire.] |