crank vs in-joke

crank

noun
  • A twist or turn in speech; word play consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word. 

  • Synonym of methamphetamine. 

  • An amateur in science or other technical subjects who persistently advocates flawed theories 

  • The penis. 

  • A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim; 

  • An ill-tempered or nasty person. 

  • The act of converting power into motion, by turning a crankshaft. 

  • A bent piece of an axle or shaft, or an attached arm perpendicular, or nearly so, to the end of a shaft or wheel, used to impart a rotation to a wheel or other mechanical device; also used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. 

  • a fit of temper or passion. 

verb
  • To turn. 

  • To cause to spin via other means, as though turned by a crank. 

  • To turn by means of a crank. 

  • To act in a cranky manner; to behave unreasonably and irritably, especially through complaining. 

  • To turn a crank. 

  • To be running at a high level of output or effort. 

adj
  • Full of spirit; brisk; lively; sprightly; overconfident; opinionated. 

  • Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast. 

  • Sick; unwell. 

  • Strange, weird, odd. 

in-joke

noun
  • Synonym of inside joke (“a joke that is understood or meant to be understood only by certain people who are aware of the details”) 

How often have the words crank and in-joke occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )