Dictionary.net

bend into the shape of a crank

fasten with a crank

rotate with a crank

bend into the shape of a crank

fasten with a crank

rotate with a crank

start by cranking; of engines

A bent portion of an axle, or shaft, or an arm keyed at right angles to the end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. See Bell crank.

Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.

A twist or turn in speech; a conceit consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.

A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim; crotchet; also, a fit of temper or passion.

A person full of crotchets; one given to fantastic or impracticable projects; one whose judgment is perverted in respect to a particular matter.

A sick person; an invalid.

Sick; infirm.

Liable to careen or be overset, as a ship when she is too narrow, or has not sufficient ballast, or is loaded too high, to carry full sail.

Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated.

To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

A device for causing an axis or shaft to move; an iron brace; a fanciful form of speech; colloquially, a person who has too many whims and fancies.

Liable to lurch or upset; shaky.

A crook or bend: a bend on an axis for communicating motion: a twisting or conceit in speech.

Bent arm to an axis, to convert reciprocating into circular motion, or the reverse.

Liable to overset; top-heavy.

Unsteady; easily capsized; shaky; lively.

A bent arm attached to an axis; or a bent portion of an axle, for converting rotary into reciprocating motion, or vice versa.

Liable to upset; crazy.

An iron axis with a part bent like an elbow, for producing a horizontal or perpendicular motion by means of a rotary, or the contrary; any bend, turn, or winding; a sportive twisting or turning in speech; a caprice; an iron brace for various purposes.

A caprice.

Anything bent or turned; in a machine, an iron axis bent and jointed like an arm, used for changing a rotatory motion into a horizontal or perpendicular one, or the contrary; a metal brace.

Inclined to heel over, as a ship that wants steadiness; liable to be upset.

n. [German] [Icelandic] A bend or turn; —the bent portion of an axis, used to produce circular motion, to change a horizontal into a vertical motion, &c.; —an iron brace for support; —a sportive twisting of an idea or word, analogous to pun.

A crank is the end of an iron axis turned square down, and again turned square to the first turning down; any bending or winding passage; any conceit formed by twisting or changing a word.

Healthy, sprightly; among sailors, a ship is said to be crank when loaded near to be overset.