cranky
1 Americanadjective
-
crankier,
comparative
-
crankiest
superlative
-
ill-tempered; grouchy; cross.
I'm always cranky when I don't get enough sleep.
- Synonyms:
- perverse, cantankerous, crotchety
-
eccentric; queer.
-
shaky; unsteady; out of order.
-
full of bends or windings; crooked.
-
British Dialect. sickly; in unsound or feeble condition; infirm.
adjective
-
crankier,
comparative
-
crankiest
superlative
adjective
-
informal eccentric
-
informal fussy and bad-tempered
-
shaky; out of order
-
full of bends and turns
-
dialect unwell
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of cranky1
First recorded in 1780–90; crank 1 + -y 1
Origin of cranky2
Explanation
Cranky is one of those words that sounds a little bit like what it means: one who is cranky is easily annoyed, irritable, or testy. My sister gets cranky when she doesn't eat. If you want to have a good day, keep her well fed. A cranky person doesn't get furious or outraged, they're just easier than usual to annoy—things get on their nerves more quickly than they do for other people. You could think of someone who's cranky as having actual crank. When they're hungry, tired or otherwise worn out that crank is easy to turn—it doesn't take much to make them mad. A person in a good mood, though, has a crank that isn't as easy to turn. That's because they're not cranky.
Vocabulary lists containing cranky
Rules
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Negative Words to Describe People
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s possible Trump was just tired and cranky.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026
When he showed up, he was in a cranky mood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Both are great island nations that find themselves besieged by cranky bond markets, at risk of losing their fiscal credibility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
“You can certainly see the market get cranky about that.”
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
“Make sure Brightbill gets plenty of rest. A tired gosling is a cranky gosling!”
From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown
“Tune into the show for the next couple hours to watch me get progressively crankier and crankier,” he said, before bemoaning missing an assignment that would have kept him inside a car.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
"You get older, you get crankier, and comfort becomes more important. I think it's as simple as that," Pitt told Esquire in an interview published Thursday.
From Fox News ● Sep. 3, 2021
Then there are delays, which make air travelers crankier but which actually work in favor of airport retail.
From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017
And when that fails, the result is typically a contest to determine who can be crankier.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 14, 2016
Mrs. Caruthers had been awake all morning, longer than any days previous, and the old woman was clearly feeling better because she was growing crankier by the hour.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
There’s Ba humbugi, a Fiji snail referencing one of literature’s crankiest men.
From Science Magazine ● May 10, 2022
He’s hosting a dinner for the rest of the Freys, an uncharacteristically spontaneous celebration from one of Game of Thrones’ crankiest old bastards.
From The Verge ● Jul. 17, 2017
Part of this animosity stems from McCain’s status as the crankiest of the Senate’s many cranky old men.
From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2015
Even Dan Hampton, the crankiest and most tortuously outspoken of the dozen or so ’85 Bears still living off that season, gave praise, though he pointedly refrained from crediting Smith.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2010
"Probably the crankiest, too," said Jeremy, as Mary Lou reached her hand toward the cage.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
