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.
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British Dialect. sickly; in unsound or feeble condition; infirm.
adjective
-
crankier,
comparative
-
crankiest
superlative
adjective
-
informal eccentric
-
informal fussy and bad-tempered
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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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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:
When he showed up for our date, he was in a cranky mood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
“You can certainly see the market get cranky about that.”
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
"If you get cranky with family, just know it's because you're tired," she told them at one point.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
I’m not cranky or moody, I’m not scattered or stressed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
“They’re tired and cranky, that’s all! They’re being their usual bratty selves.”
From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina
The return of live performances in 2021 after 18 months of shuttered halls and scattered orchestras was enough to disabuse any critic of their crankier faculties.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 7, 2021
"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
But it’s often the case that the older musicians get, the crankier they become about … everything.
From Slate ● May 7, 2021
Neil Young is crankier than a hermit being stung by bees.
From New York Times ● Aug. 20, 2019
Violet was crankier than ever as I milked her that night.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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
She’d even joined the toad racing team and gotten stuck with the slowest, crankiest toad of the lot.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
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.
