cranking up

Verb

crank up (third-person singular simple present cranks up, present participle cranking up, simple past and past participle cranked up)

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.
5. To describe in praiseworthy terms; to promote.
   • Was the great machine ever what it was cranked up to be?2003, Chris Jenks, Transgression
6. (intransitive, slang) To inject heroin.