[f. CRANE sb.1]
1. trans. To hoist or lower with a crane, or with similar apparatus.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., 35. By two Wheles more … there may be Craned vp 200,000 pound waight.
a. 1652. Brome, Queenes Exch., V. Wks. 1873, III. 536. When I shake the rope, then crane me up again.
1749. Wealth Gt. Britain, 53. It is craned into cellars.
1816. Scott, Antiq., viii. Being safely craned up to the top of the crag.
b. fig.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. xix. 35. They are bad works, that need rewards to crane them up withal.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, III. i. An upstart, craned up to the height he has.
1676. Kidder, Charity Dir., 21. Let us not need Craning and Skrewing up to so Blessed a work.
1890. W. M. Fullerton, in Fortn. Rev., Feb., 251. By money man is enabled … to crane himself above the dead level of uniformity.
2. To stretch (the neck) like a crane. (Also, rarely, to crane one’s head.)
1799. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 64. A grotesque being, a little man who can … crane up his neck to the top-tower window.
1849. Curzon, Visits Monast., 319. We all craned our necks over the edge to see what had become of our companion.
1886. W. H. Mallock, Old Order Changes, III. 34. Craning his head forward he looked in the direction indicated.
3. intr. To stretch out one’s neck; to lean or bend forward with the neck stretched out.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxviii. (1884), 270. Pen craned over the coach to have a long look at the great Hurtle.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xii. 80. Those who sat above craned forward.
4. Hunting. To pull up at a hedge or other obstacle and look over before leaping; hence fig. to ‘look before one leaps,’ hesitate at or shrink back from a danger, difficulty, etc. (colloq.)
1823. Byron, Juan, XIV. xxxiii. He clear’d hedge, ditch, and double post, and rail, And never craned.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., liii. A very fat pony, who would have craned if he had attempted to leap over a straw.
1849. E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, II. 240. The bold fox-hunter, who … ne’er ‘craned’ at … stone wall, or double ditch.
fig. 1862. Bradford Advertiser, 27 Dec., 6/3. The American Executive appears to be feeling its way. In England it looks like craning.
1892. Sat. Rev., 4 June, 647/1. Was he expected to ‘crane’ at the taxation of ground values?
