cranky

English

Etymology

From crank +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈkɹaŋki/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋki

Adjective

cranky (comparative crankier, superlative crankiest)

1. (obsolete) Weak, unwell.
2. (of a machine, etc.) Not in good working condition; shaky.
   • 1914, Theodore Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, The River of Doubt,

     We had seven canoes, all of them dugouts. One was small, one was cranky, and two were old, waterlogged, and leaky. The other three were good.

3. Grouchy, irritable; easily upset.

   He got home from a long day at work tired and cranky.

4. Not in perfect mental working order; eccentric, peculiar.
   • 1934 December, Robert E. Howard, The Road to Bear Creek, in Action Stories,

     Uncle Esau is as cranky as hell, and a peculiar old duck, but I think he'll like a fine upstanding young man as big as you be.

5. (archaic) Full of spirit; spirited.

Translations

grouchy, irritable; easily upset

• Bulgarian: нестабилен (bg) (nestabilen), разклатен (bg) (razklaten)
• Danish: gnaven (da)
• Dutch: opvliegend (nl), driftig (nl)
• Finnish: äreä (fi), ärtyisä (fi)
• German: gereizt (de), launisch (de)

• Japanese: 気難しい (ja) (kimudukashii)
• Russian: раздражительный (ru) (razdražitelʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: ćùdljiv (sh), hiròvit (sh)
• Spanish: mal (es) genio (es), mañoso (es)

eccentric, peculiar

• Bulgarian: капризен (bg) (kaprizen), ексцентричен (bg) (ekscentričen)

• Finnish: erikoinen (fi), originelli (fi), outo (fi), vinksahtanut (fi)