crank

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crank1

▶verb

• 1 turn a crankshaft or handle, especially in order to start an engine.

• 2 (crank something up) informal increase the intensity of something.

• 3 (crank something out) informal, derogatory produce something regularly and routinely.

• 4 give a bend to (a shaft or bar).

▶noun a part of an axle or shaft bent out at right angles, for converting reciprocal to circular motion and vice versa.

– origin OE cranc, rel. to crincan (see cringe).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crank2

▶noun

• 1 a person with eccentric or obsessive views.

  ■ N. Amer. a bad-tempered person.

• 2 literary a fanciful turn of speech.

– origin back-form. from cranky; sense 2 is perh. from a base meaning ‘bent together, curled up’, shared by crank1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crank3

▶adjective Nautical, archaic (of a sailing ship) liable to heel over.

– origin C17: perh. from dial. crank ‘weak, shaky’.