cran

Gaelic.

• crane

cran (plural crans or cran)

1. (obsolete) A measure of herrings, either imprecise or sometimes legally specified. It has sometimes been about 37½ imperial gallons, or 750 herring on average.
   • 1800 Dec., Sir Richard Phillips, The Monthly magazine, Volume 10, No. 66, page 486:

     Very flattering indeed has been the success of the fishermen; and many boats have come in loaded, averaging thirty or forty crans each (every cran estimated at 1,000 herrings), and disposed of their cargoes at nine shillings per cran; but the price has been since raised to fifteen shillings.

   • 1960, Ewan MacColl, BBC radio ballad Singing the Fishing:

     […] And fish the knolls on the North Sea Holes
     And try your luck at the North Shields Gut
     With a catch of a hundred cran.

2. (obsolete, rare, by extension) A barrel made to hold such a measure.

• For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:cran.

cran (plural crans)

1. (music) An embellishment played on the lowest note of a chanter of a bagpipe, consisting of a series of grace notes produced by rapid sequential lifting of the fingers of the lower hand.

• Carn, NRCA, cRNA, carn, crna, narc

From créner.

• IPA^(key): /kʁɑ̃/

cran m (plural crans)

1. notch
2. (firearms) safety catch
3. (belt) hole
4. (hair) wave
5. (colloquial) guts, bottle, courage

   Ce garçon a du cran, pour oser sauter en parachute. ― This boy has guts, jumping with the parachute.

   • 1998, Ol Kainry (lyrics), “Agrévolution”, in Ce n’est que l’début, performed by Agression Verbale:

     Tu sais pourquoi on voit grand, depuis qu’on est grand, qu’on a du cran
     C’est que la merde nous a pendu, on est adolescent
     Cran d’arrêt en guise de porte bonheur

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

• “cran” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• IPA^(key): /krɑn/

cran m

1. a crane

   Se cran wæs standende on ānum sċancan.

   The crane was standing on one leg.

   Man oft ġehīerþ cranas lange ǣr hē hīe ġesiehþ.

   You often hear cranes long before you see them.

   Þā cranas wyrċaþ heora nest on ċiriċena belhūsum.

   The cranes make their nests in the bell towers of churches.

• Middle English: crane, cran
  • English: crane