cranky

English

Etymology

From crank +‎ -y. Compare Middle Low German krankich (“sickly, unwell”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹæŋki/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋki

Adjective

cranky (comparative crankier, superlative crankiest)

1. (of a machine, etc.) Not in good working condition.

   Synonym: 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.

2. Grouchy, grumpy, irritable; easily upset.

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

3. 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.

4. Synonym of crank (“of a ship: liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast”)

   a cranky vessel

5. (archaic) Full of spirit; spirited.
6. (obsolete) Weak, unwell.

Translations

(of a machine, etc.) Not in good working condition

• Bulgarian: разнебитен (bg) (raznebiten)

grouchy, irritable; easily upset

• Bulgarian: опак (bg) (opak), капризен (bg) (kaprizen)
• Danish: gnaven
• Dutch: opvliegend (nl), driftig (nl)
• Finnish: äreä (fi), ärtyisä (fi)
• French: grincheux (fr), chafouin (fr)
• German: gereizt (de), launisch (de)
• Irish: cantalach
• Japanese: 気難しい (kimuzukashii)
• Macedonian: ра́здразлив (rázdrazliv), на́мрштен (námršten), на́муртен (námurten)
• Portuguese: ranzinza (pt) m or f
• Russian: раздражительный (ru) (razdražitelʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: ćùdljiv, hiròvit (sh)
• Spanish: de mal genio, mañoso (es)
• Welsh: piwis (cy), pifis, croes (cy)
• Westrobothnian: vrang, tjwär

eccentric, peculiar

• Bulgarian: странен (bg) (stranen), ексцентричен (bg) (ekscentričen)
• Finnish: erikoinen (fi), originelli (fi), outo (fi), vinksahtanut
• German: schrullig (de), verschroben (de), spleenig, eigenartig (de), exzentrisch (de)
• Macedonian: чу́ден (čúden), ексце́нтричен (ekscéntričen), нео́бичен (neóbičen)
• Russian: чудаковатый (ru) m (čudakovatyj), эксцентричный (ru) m (ekscentričnyj)
• Swedish: excentrisk (sv), knäpp (sv), tokig (sv)