crane1
/kreɪn
/noun
1A large, tall machine used for moving heavy objects by suspending them from a projecting arm or beam: a dockside crane [as modifier]: a crane driver...
- Giant cranes were lifting large, mangled steel beams and depositing them onto 18-wheelers.
- A gantry crane lifts the containers onto the ship.
- A 200-ton crane then lifts the tree to its new site.
Synonyms
derrick, winch, hoist, davit, windlass, tackle, block and tackle, lifting gear;
Nautical sheerlegs
1.1A moving platform supporting a television or film camera: a very long tracking shot done with dolly and crane [as modifier]: the opening crane shot...
- It used to be that a crane shot or a super-special camera package was a real rarity.
- The crew is enormous, stars are pampered, camera cranes abound, everything is shot on studio sets, there is even a helicopter shot.
- When, in a rare moment, a crane or long shot is employed, the film starts to rumble awake.
verb
1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Stretch out one’s body or neck in order to see something: she craned forward to look more clearly...
- You'll need to lift your head out of the water, much like a water polo player craning forward to see the ball.
- A thousand heads crane forward just for a glimpse of the man.
- Syona's head, craned forward, was obscured by her short lustrous hair.
1.1 [with object] Stretch out (one’s neck) so as to see something: she craned her neck to see past me...
- But let's stop craning our necks in search for it, hunh?
- I had my face close to the window, craning my neck to scan.
- More than 2,000 people are expected to attend, craning their necks for the massive bonfire and display ‘worth a few grand’.
2 [with object and adverbial] Move (a heavy object) with a crane: the wheelhouse module is craned into position on the hull...
- After manufacture at Huntington, 72 steel-framed modules have now been craned into position at Portsmouth.
- Powerful magnets were carefully craned over buildings into their new position.
- The single-storey centre was craned into position.
Origin
Middle English: figuratively from crane2 (the same sense development occurred in the related German Kran and Dutch kraan (see crane2), and in French grue). The verb dates from the late 16th century.
The first meaning of crane, in the Middle Ages, was as the name for the long-legged wading bird that was then common in marshy places. The similarly long-legged lifting machine was also being called a crane as early as the 14th century. German, Dutch, and French also use their word for the bird for the machine.
Rhymes
crane2
/kreɪn/noun
A tall, long-legged, long-necked bird, typically with white or grey plumage and often with tail plumes and patches of bare red skin on the head. Cranes are noted for their elaborate courtship dances.
- Family Gruidae: four genera, in particular Grus, and several species, including the Eurasian common crane (G. grus).
- High above the skies will be filled with gliding cranes, storks and birds of prey.
- Distant relatives of cranes, trumpeters are long-legged, chicken-sized birds that glean fallen fruit from the ground.
Origin
Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kraan and German Kran, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin grus and Greek geranos.