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.

   • 1987 December 6, Kris Kleindienst, “Sex On The Table”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 21, page 6:

     Margaret Cerullo gave a rousing speech, despite the pesky interruptions of a cranky sound system.

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.

Derived terms

• crankily
• crankiness

Translations

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

• Bulgarian: разнебитен (bg) (raznebiten)
• Portuguese: disfuncional

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)
• Ingrian: tulekas
• Irish: cantalach
• Japanese: 気難しい (ja) (kimuzukashii)
• Macedonian: ра́здразлив (rázdrazliv), на́мрштен (námršten), на́муртен (námurten)
• Portuguese: ranzinza (pt) m or f, irritável (pt)
• Russian: раздражительный (ru) (razdražitelʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: ćùdljiv, hiròvit (sh)
• Spanish: de mal genio, mañoso (es)
• Uzbek: tajang (uz)
• Welsh: piwis (cy), pifis, croes (cy)

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)
• Portuguese: excêntrico (pt)
• Russian: чудаковатый (ru) m (čudakovatyj), эксцентричный (ru) m (ekscentričnyj)
• Swedish: excentrisk (sv), knäpp (sv), tokig (sv)