Dictionary

crank up en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. To start something mechanical, an act that often used to involve cranking.
   • Let's crank up the old motorcycle and take it for a spin.
2. (idiomatic, reflexive) To muster up the mental energy to do something.
   • I kept thinking: this has nothing to do with my interests, with what I believe is a desirable subject for literature. I was doing it as a performance. I kept cranking myself up to perform, to meet the demands of the genre. I know this sounds terribly inartistic. 1976 August 14, John Mitzel, Richard Hall, “The Whodunit Writer: Why He Dun It”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 7, page 7:
3. (idiomatic, slang) To prepare (something).
4. (idiomatic) To increase, as the volume, power or energy of something.
   • He cranked up the volume to 11.
   • And it was not until Ryan Shawcross's towering header was cleared off the line by Danny Murphy on the stroke of half-time that Stoke started to crank up the pressure and suggest they were capable of getting back into the match. 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC:
5. To describe in praiseworthy terms; to promote.
   • Was the great machine ever what it was cranked up to be? 2003, Chris Jenks, Transgression:
   • Let's hope your ol' buddy Majors is all he's cranked up to be, for we're about to introduce him to what you yanks refer to as hard ball. 2004, Michael Pinchot, Panamanian Tundra, page 66:
   • That whole campaign was a damp squib, they cranked it up as a real possibility that Scotland might win, and when we actually got there it didn't happen like that, and everybody came home quite early with their tails between their legs. 2013, Alistair Moffat, Susan Mansfield, Alexander Smith, The Great Tapestry of Scotland: The Making of a Masterpiece:
6. (intransitive, slang) To inject heroin.

Forms

Translations (23)

fi laittaa käyntiin (to start something mechanical) · es aumentar (to increase power or volume) · fi lisätä (to increase power or volume) · fi käynnistää (to start something mechanical) · ru прибавить звука (to increase power or volume) · ru зажигать (to increase power or volume) · ru поднапрячь (to increase power or volume) · pl pogłaśniać (to increase power or volume) · es subir (to increase power or volume) · de ankurbeln (to start something mechanical) · ru поднять (to increase power or volume) · pl promować (to describe in praiseworthy terms) · pl wypromować (to describe in praiseworthy terms) · pl wprawić w ruch (to start something mechanical) · ru сделать на всю катушку (to increase power or volume) · pl pogłośnić (to increase power or volume) · es arrancar (to start something mechanical) · fr monter (to increase power or volume) · pl wprawiać w ruch (to start something mechanical) · ru заводить (to start something mechanical) · ru поднапрячься (to increase power or volume) · fi kehua (to describe in praiseworthy terms) · fi kohottaa (to increase power or volume)