crank up
verb
Simple meaning
To increase, as the volume, power or energy of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krangkuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹæŋˈkʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
idiomatic
To increase, as the volume, power or energy of something.
To start something mechanical, an act that often used to involve cranking.
idiomaticreflexive
To muster up the mental energy to do something.
To describe in praiseworthy terms; to promote.
idiomaticslang
To prepare (something).
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To increase, as the volume, power or energy of something.
Used this way, crank up is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.