- (disapproving)
a person with ideas that other people find strange （想法）古怪的人 Vegans are no longer dismissed as cranks. 素食主义者不再被视为怪人。 Everybody famous gets crank calls and letters. 每个名人都会收到奇怪的电话和信件。
- (North American English)
a person who easily gets angry or annoyed 脾气坏的人；容易恼怒的人 The old crank next door can’t stand the sound of our lawnmower. 隔壁的旧曲柄受不了我们割草机的声音。
a bar and handle in the shape of an L that you pull or turn to produce movement in a machine, etc. （L 字形）曲柄，曲轴 
Word Originnoun sense 3 Old English cranc (recorded in crancstæf, denoting a weaver's implement), related to crincan ‘bend, yield, fall in battle’, of Germanic origin .