crane

Noun (1)

crane (plural cranes)

1. Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight.
   • Aquatic birds of various kinds are very numerous, such as geese, darters (Flotus melanogaster), scissor-bills (Rhynchops nigra), adjutants (Leptoptilos argala), pelicans, cormorants, cranes (Grus antigone, in Burmese gyoja), whimbrels, plovers, and ibises.1876, "Burmah" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 552
2. (US, dialectal) Ardea herodias, the great blue heron.
3. A mechanical lifting machine or device, often used for lifting heavy loads for industrial or construction purposes.
   • Large cranes were virtually non-existent in the areas I worked with this truck, so we jacked everything on and off[.]2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 111
4. An iron arm with horizontal motion, attached to the side or back of a fireplace for supporting kettles etc. over the fire.
5. A siphon, or bent pipe, for drawing liquors out of a cask.
6. A forked post or projecting bracket to support spars, etc.; generally used in pairs.

Verb

crane (third-person singular simple present cranes, present participle craning, simple past and past participle craned)

1. (ambitransitive) To extend (one's neck).
   • and my bachelor's hearth is imbedded where by much craning of head and neck I can catch sight of a sycamore in the Square garden,1879, George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such
   • Didcot had one definite pleasure. We knew that little boys would be going up and down the platform singing out, "Banbury cakes! Banbury cakes!" And mother would crane out and buy some, just to encourage the crew.1948 November and December, “By Broad Gauge to Cornwall”, in Railway Magazine, page 357
2. (transitive) To raise or lower with, or as if with, a crane.
   • What engines, what instruments are used in craning up a soul, sunk below the centre, to the highest heavens.1693, William Bates, Sermons preach'd on Several Occasions
   • an upstart craned up to the height he has1619, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry
3. (intransitive) To pull up before a jump.

Noun (2)

crane (plural cranes)

1. (obsolete) The cranium.

Proper noun capitalized: Crane

UK/kɹɛɪn/

Crane (countable and uncountable, plural Cranes)

1. (countable) A surname.
2. A minor river in Dorset, England, which becomes the Moors River near Verwood; the name is a back-formation from Cranborne.
3. A minor river in Greater London, England, which joins the Thames between St Margarets and Isleworth.
4. A town in Perry Township, Martin County, Indiana.
5. A town in Stone County, Missouri.
6. A census-designated place in Richland County, Montana.
7. A census-designated place in Harney County, Oregon.
8. A city, the county seat of Crane County, Texas.
9. An unincorporated community in Bath County, Virginia.
10. An unincorporated community in Clallam County, Washington.