Cranky means in a bad temper over small things. A cranky mood, cranky in the morning, getting cranky.
It is used most about tired children and about adults behaving like them. In American English it is the ordinary word for grumpy; in British English grumpy is commoner and cranky leans towards eccentric. That second sense — a cranky theory, a cranky old machine — means odd and unreliable and is the older one. Note crank, meaning somebody with an obsessive theory, from which both senses come.
1adjectivecrankyIn a bad temper over small things.
“The whole household is cranky until about nine in the morning.”
2adjectiveoddOdd and unreliable.
“The old boiler is a bit cranky and needs a kick to start in the mornings.”
cranky is a quality of irritability.
Also accepted in games: grumpy, irritable
Proto-Germanic
*krangaz
Proto-West Germanic
*krank
Low German
krank
English
crank
English, today
cranky
Built from
From crank + y. Compare Middle Low German krankich (“sickly, unwell”). crank comes from Dutch - or Low German krank, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic krank, from Proto-Germanic krangaz, krankaz (“bent; weak”). Cognate with Scots crank, krank, German krank (“sick”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA