Wiktionary

crane

See also: Crane, crâne, and crâné

EnglishEdit

 
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A crane (bird).
 
A crane (mechanical).

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /kɹeɪn/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪn

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English cran, from Old English cran (“crane”), from Proto-West Germanic *kran, from Proto-Germanic *kranô (“crane”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”).

Cognate with Scots cran (“crane”), Dutch kraan (“crane”), German Kran (“crane”). The mechanical devices are named from their likeness to the bird.

NounEdit

crane (plural cranes)

  1. Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight.
  2. (US, dialect) Ardea herodias, the great blue heron.
  3. A mechanical lifting machine or device, often used for lifting heavy loads for industrial or construction purposes.
    • 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 111:
      Large cranes were virtually non-existent in the areas I worked with this truck, so we jacked everything on and off[.]
  4. An iron arm with horizontal motion, attached to the side or back of a fireplace for supporting kettles etc. over the fire.
  5. A siphon, or bent pipe, for drawing liquors out of a cask.
  6. (nautical) A forked post or projecting bracket to support spars, etc.; generally used in pairs.
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit

(Lifting devices):

Birds
other terms (unsorted)
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
See alsoEdit

VerbEdit

crane (third-person singular simple present cranes, present participle craning, simple past and past participle craned)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To extend (one's neck).
    • 1879, George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such:
      and my bachelor's hearth is imbedded where by much craning of head and neck I can catch sight of a sycamore in the Square garden,
    • 1948 November and December, “By Broad Gauge to Cornwall”, in Railway Magazine, page 357:
      Didcot had one definite pleasure. We knew that little boys would be going up and down the platform singing out, "Banbury cakes! Banbury cakes!" And mother would crane out and buy some, just to encourage the crew.
    • 2008, Rivers Cuomo (lyrics and music), “Troublemaker”, in Weezer (Red Album), performed by Weezer:
      I'm gonna be a star and people will crane necks
      To get a glimpse of me and see if I am having sex
  2. (transitive) To raise or lower with, or as if with, a crane.
    • 1693, William Bates, Sermons preach'd on Several Occasions:
      What engines, what instruments are used in craning up a soul, sunk below the centre, to the highest heavens.
    • 1619, Philip Massinger and Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry
      an upstart craned up to the height he has
  3. (intransitive) To pull up before a jump.
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English crane, cranee, from Old French cran, from Medieval Latin crānium.

NounEdit

crane (plural cranes)

  1. (obsolete) The cranium.

Etymology 3Edit

NounEdit

crane (plural cranes)

  1. Alternative form of cran (“measure of herrings”)

AnagramsEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Inherited from Old English cran, *crana.

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈkraːn(ə)/, /kran/

NounEdit

crane (plural cranes)

  2. crane (bird)
  3. crane (machine)
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • English: crane (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: cran
ReferencesEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Borrowed from Old French cran, from Medieval Latin crānium.

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

crane

  2. cranium
DescendantsEdit
  • English: crane (obsolete)
ReferencesEdit
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