From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcrankycrank‧y /ˈkræŋki/ adjective 1 British English informalMPSTRANGE strange → eccentric, weird Organic farming is no longer thought of as cranky.2 informalBAD-TEMPERED bad-tempered I was feeling tired and cranky. —crankiness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
cranky• They became cranky and quarrelsome, and stopped most of their activities in order to conserve energy.• On arrival the boy was cranky and refused to walk through the airport.• But on another plane, there was a certain determined grumbling, a cranky insistence that they were not meeting their standards.• Scott seems a little cranky this morning.• We had a fairly peaceful time, but Clarisa and Janir argued a lot, and she was a cranky visitor.Origin cranky (1700-1800) Partly from → CRANK1; partly from crank “loose, not working properly” ((18-19 centuries)) (perhaps from Dutch or German krank “weak, ill”) 