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Crane   /kreɪn/   Listen
noun
Crane, Cran  n.  A measure for fresh herrings, as many as will fill a barrel. (Scot.)


Crane  n.  
1.
(Zool.) A wading bird of the genus Grus, and allied genera, of various species, having a long, straight bill, and long legs and neck. Note: The common European crane is Grus cinerea. The sand-hill crane (Grus Mexicana) and the whooping crane (Grus Americana) are large American species. The Balearic or crowned crane is Balearica pavonina. The name is sometimes erroneously applied to the herons and cormorants.
2.
Any arm which swings about a vertical axis at one end, used for supporting a suspended weight.
3.
A machine for raising and lowering heavy weights, and, while holding them suspended, transporting them through a limited lateral distance. In one form it consists of a projecting arm or jib of timber or iron, a rotating post or base, and the necessary tackle, windlass, etc.; so called from a fancied similarity between its arm and the neck of a crane.
4.
An iron arm with horizontal motion, attached to the side or back of a fireplace, for supporting kettles, etc., over a fire.
5.
A siphon, or bent pipe, for drawing liquors out of a cask.
6.
(Naut.) A forked post or projecting bracket to support spars, etc., generally used in pairs. See Crotch, 2.
7.
(Zool.) The American blue heron (Ardea herodias). (Local, U. S.)
Crane fly (Zool.), a dipterous insect with long legs, of the genus Tipula.
Derrick crane. See Derrick.
Gigantic crane. (Zool.) See Adjutant, n., 3.
Traveling crane, Traveler crane, Traversing crane (Mach.), a crane mounted on wheels; esp., an overhead crane consisting of a crab or other hoisting apparatus traveling on rails or beams fixed overhead, as in a machine shop or foundry.
Water crane, a kind of hydrant with a long swinging spout, for filling locomotive tenders, water carts, etc., with water.


verb
Crane  v. t.  (past & past part. craned; pres. part. craning)  
1.
To cause to rise; to raise or lift, as by a crane; with up. (R.) "What engines, what instruments are used in craning up a soul, sunk below the center, to the highest heavens." "An upstart craned up to the height he has."
2.
To stretch, as a crane stretches its neck; as, to crane the neck disdainfully.


crane  v. i.  To reach forward with head and neck, in order to see better; as, a hunter cranes forward before taking a leap. "The passengers eagerly craning forward over the bulwarks."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Crane" Quotes from Famous Books



... as Minister says. Here, how, fashion is the top of the pot, and that pot hangs on the highest hook on the crane. In America, natur can't go no farther; it's the rael thing. Look at the women kind, now. An Indgian gall, down South, goes most naked. Well, a splendiferous company gall, here, when she is full dressed is only half covered, and neither ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... edition of each important picture that he published, an edition on plate-paper, without text, and offered to his readers at ten cents a copy. Within a year he had sold nearly one hundred thousand copies, such pictures as W. L. Taylor's "The Hanging of the Crane" and "Home-Keeping ...
— The Americanization of Edward Bok - The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After • Edward William Bok (1863-1930)
... often took their eggs and their young ones. My brother Chatanna and I once had a disagreeable adventure while bird-hunting. We were accustomed to catch in our hands young ducks and geese during the summer, and while doing this we happened to find a crane's nest. Of course, we were delighted with our good luck. But, as it was already midsummer, the young cranes—two in number—were rather large and they were a little way from the nest; we also observed that the two old cranes were in a swampy place near by; but, ...
— Indian Boyhood • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman
... old bards were less as poets, but that they were more as men. To strong, susceptible characters, the music of nature is not confined to sweet sounds. The defiant scream of the hawk circling aloft, the wild whinny of the loon, the whooping of the crane, the booming of the bittern, the vulpine bark of the eagle, the loud trumpeting of the migratory geese sounding down out of the midnight sky; or by the seashore, the coast of New Jersey or Long Island, the wild crooning of the flocks of gulls, repeated, continued by the hour, swirling sharp ...
— Birds and Poets • John Burroughs
... from those parts of the fatty matters which cannot be converted into soap, and consequently remains in this solution, forms a valuable addition. Heaps of soil saturated with this liquid in autumn, and subjected to the freezings of winter, form an admirable manure for spring use. Mr. Crane, near Newark (N. J.), has long used a mixture of spent ley and stable manure, applied in the fall to trenches plowed in the soil, and has been most successful ...
— The Elements of Agriculture - A Book for Young Farmers, with Questions Prepared for the Use of Schools • George E. Waring


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