Word.ws English Dictionary

turn someone's crank

turn someone's crank verb: to arouse a person's interest or passion; to excite someone.

Verb

turn someone's crank (third-person singular simple present turns someone's crank, present participle turning someone's crank, simple past and past participle turned someone's crank)

  1. (informal) To arouse a person's interest or passion; to excite someone.
    • McGwire had said that international competition did not "turn my crank," but the players on the dais today seemed positively excited about the trip.2000 March 26, George Vecsey, “Baseball: Mets and Cubs Are Grateful McGwire Said No to Tokyo”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Jul 2011
    • But it was journalism that turned his crank. He loved knowing the secrets and the gossip; he loved trafficking in information.2003 May 25, “The Times Bomb”, in Newsweek, retrieved 16 Jul 2011

Synonyms of turn someone's crank

Forms of turn someone's crank

third-person singular presentturns someone's crank
present participleturning someone's crank
past participleturned someone's crank
pastturned someone's crank

Questions about turn someone's crank

What does turn someone's crank mean?
Turn someone's crank means to arouse a person's interest or passion; to excite someone.
What part of speech is turn someone's crank?
Turn someone's crank is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn someone's crank?
The past tense of turn someone's crank is turned someone's crank.

Words near turn someone's crank in the dictionary

  1. turn round
  2. turn rusty
  3. turn shoe
  4. turn signal
  5. turn signals
  6. turn someone's crank
  7. turn someone's head
  8. turn something into an art form
  9. turn south
  10. turn square corners
  11. turn stop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn someone's crank (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-turn someone's crank.ogg.

Cite this entry: “turn someone's crank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_someone%27s_crank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.