crank letter

American  

noun

1. a hostile or fanatical letter, often sent anonymously.

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crank letter Idioms  

1. Also, crank call. An irrational, fanatical, or hostile letter or telephone call. For example, The office was flooded with mail, including a lot of crank letters, or Harriet was upset enough by the crank calls to notify the police. This expression employs crank in the sense of “irrational person.” The first term dates from the mid-1900s, the variant from the 1960s.

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Example Sentences

In his own way, he turned the crank letter into a literary form.

From Time Magazine Archive

Despite its geopolitical subject, the result is a typical Bellow production: part meditation, part crank letter, tinged with the doubt of Ecclesiastes and the faith of Moses, full of quicksilver insights and deep Talmudic scholarship.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the belief that the "crank" letter is a phenomenon of definite interest both psychologically and socially, I am compiling a collection of representative specimens.

From Time Magazine Archive

Marines 2nd Division, A. E. F. New York City "We Were Suckers" Sirs: We cannot sign our names to this, but it is no crank letter.

From Time Magazine Archive

As a "crank" letter he turned it over to the Washington correspondents.

From Real Soldiers of Fortune by Davis, Richard Harding