DictionaryAI

cranky

adjective
KRANG-kee/ˈkɹæŋki/

Formscrankier, crankiest

6 meanings of cranky

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  1. 1
    adjective
    In a bad temper and quick to get irritated or upset.

    Twelve hours into the delayed flight, the passengers were tired, cranky, and short with the crew.

    My grandfather gets crankier every winter when the ice keeps him from his morning walks.

    Similargrumpy, irritable, crabby, grouchy, cross

    Oppositecheerful, easygoing, genial

  2. 2
    adjective
    Usually of a machine or the like, not in good working condition; faulty.

    The band struggled through the set with a cranky amplifier that kept cutting out.

    The ferry's engine grew crankier every season, and by August it would barely start.

    Similarshaky

    Oppositereliable, dependable

    Note

    English built the word from crank and -y; Middle Low German krankich, sickly, is a telling comparison, since a cranky machine behaves like an ailing one: running, but not to be trusted. Equipment is its usual subject, and shaky its nearest synonym: Theodore Roosevelt, in Through the Brazilian Wilderness (1914), rates one of his dugout canoes cranky.

  3. 3
    adjective
    Not quite sound of mind; eccentric or peculiar in one's ways.

    Great-aunt Hilda was a little cranky, wearing three hats at once and insisting the moon followed her home.

    The crankiest of the hermits on the ridge believed his goats could predict elections.

    Similareccentric, odd, peculiar, dotty, batty

    Oppositenormal, conventional, sane

    Note

    Here the oddness is in the mind rather than the mood: Robert E. Howard's Uncle Esau, in The Road to Bear Creek (1934), is as cranky as hell and a peculiar old duck. When a sentence could mean either, odd habits and strange beliefs point here, while snapping and sulking point to plain bad temper.

  4. 4
    adjective
    Of a ship, liable to capsize because its cargo is badly stowed or it carries too little ballast.

    Loaded top-heavy with timber, the schooner was so cranky that the captain refused to leave port.

    Sailors dreaded a cranky ship in rough seas, where a single bad roll could lay her on her side.

    Similarcrank

    Oppositestiff, stable

    Note

    Sailors also use the shorter crank for the same fault, so a crank ship and a cranky vessel are in the same danger. Nothing is wrong with her build or her temper: the trouble is in the loading, and stowing or ballasting her properly cures it.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    adjectivearchaic
    Lively and full of spirit.

    Fresh from the stable, the cranky colt pranced and tossed his head, eager for the open road.

    Though past eighty, she was as cranky as a girl of twenty and first up to dance at every wedding.

    Note

    Older writing can catch a modern reader out, because a cranky colt or a cranky old dancer there may simply be full of life. High spirits, eagerness and prancing point to this archaic meaning; sulks and snapping point to the grumpy one, which is the only reading most people now expect.

  2. 6
    adjectiveobsolete
    Weak in body and in poor health.
    Note

    What fails here is the body, not the temper: a cranky person was weak or in poor health. The use is obsolete, and like the lively meaning it can trap a modern reader, who will hear bad temper where the writer meant frailty.

Practice

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Origin

Formed from crank + -y. Compare Middle Low German krankich, meaning “sickly, unwell”.