[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The state or quality of being crank (in the different senses of the adjs.).

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  † 1.  Lustiness, vigor. Obs.

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1730–6.  Bailey (folio), Crankness, briskness, liveliness.

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1755.  Johnson, Crankness, 1. health; vigour.

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  2.  Of a ship: ‘Disposition to overset’ (J.).

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1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World, 2. I came under the Success’s lee, and complain’d of the crankness of my ship.

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1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), E iij. Crankness … is occasioned by having too little ballast, or by disposing the ship’s lading so as to raise the centre of gravity too high.

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  3.  = CRANKINESS.

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1890.  Sat. Rev., 13 Sept., 324/1. Absolute freedom from crankness, a virtue rare, indeed, in art-literature.

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