crane.
Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight.
Meaning & usage
Any bird of the family Gruidae, large birds with long legs and a long neck which is extended during flight.
Ardea herodias, the great blue heron.
A mechanical lifting machine or device, often used for lifting heavy loads for industrial or construction purposes.
An iron arm with horizontal motion, attached to the side or back of a fireplace for supporting kettles etc. over the fire.
A siphon, or bent pipe, for drawing liquors out of a cask.
A forked post or projecting bracket to support spars, etc.; generally used in pairs.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crane, from Old English cran (“crane”), from Proto-West Germanic *kran, *kranō, from Proto-Germanic *kranô (“crane”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”). Cognate with Scots cran (“crane”), Dutch kraan (“crane”), German Low German Kroon (“crane”), German Kran (“crane”). The mechanical devices are named from their likeness to the bird.
To extend (one's neck).
To raise or lower with, or as if with, a crane.
To pull up before a jump.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crane, from Old English cran (“crane”), from Proto-West Germanic *kran, *kranō, from Proto-Germanic *kranô (“crane”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”). Cognate with Scots cran (“crane”), Dutch kraan (“crane”), German Low German Kroon (“crane”), German Kran (“crane”). The mechanical devices are named from their likeness to the bird.
The cranium.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crane, cranee, from Old French cran, from Medieval Latin crānium.
Alternative form of cran (“measure of herrings”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.