cranks

1. A bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an attached arm perpendicular, or nearly so, to the end of a shaft or wheel, used to impart a rotation to a wheel or other mechanical device; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion.

   I grind my coffee by hand with a coffee grinder with a crank handle.

2. The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft.

   Yes, a crank was all it needed to start.

3. Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage.
4. An ill-tempered or nasty person.

   Billy-Bob is a nasty old crank! He chased my cat away.

5. A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim;
6. A fit of temper or passion.
7. (dated in US) A person who is considered strange or odd by others. They may behave in unconventional ways.

   John is a crank because he talks to himself.

8. (1800s) A baseball fan.
9. An advocate of a pseudoscience movement.

   That crank next door thinks he’s created cold fusion in his garage.

10. A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word.
11. A sick person; an invalid.
12. A penis.

1. To turn by means of a crank.

   Motorists had to crank their engine by hand.

2. To turn a crank.

   He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

3. (of a crank or similar) To turn.

   He's been cranking all day and yet it refuses to crank.

4. To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank.

   Crank it up!

5. To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining.

   Quit cranking about your spilt milk!

6. To be running at a high level of output or effort.

   By one hour into the shift, the boys were really cranking.

7. To run with a winding course; to double; to crook; to wind and turn.

noun

A highly addictive phenethylamine stimulant drug, similar to cocaine. Its systematic (IUPAC) name is (S)-N-methyl-1-phenylpropan-2-amine.