Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small opening, as in a wall or rock face; a crevice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any small narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, a rock, a tree, etc.
  • To become intersected with or penetrated by crannies, clefts, or crevices.
  • To enter by crannies; haunt crannies.
  • Pleasant; brisk; jovial.
  • noun A tool for forming the necks of glass bottles.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance.
  • noun (Glass Making) A tool for forming the necks of bottles, etc.
  • intransitive verb rare To crack into, or become full of, crannies.
  • intransitive verb To haunt, or enter by, crannies.
  • adjective Prov. Eng. Quick; giddy; thoughtless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance.
  • noun A tool for forming the necks of bottles, etc.
  • adjective UK, dialect quick; giddy; thoughtless

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a long narrow depression in a surface
  • noun a small opening or crevice (especially in a rock face or wall)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English crani, perhaps alteration of Old French cren, cran, notch, from crener, to notch, from Vulgar Latin *crināre, probably of Gaulish origin and akin to he decays, fails, withers.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English crany, crani ("cranny"), apparently a diminutive of Middle English *cran (+ -y), from Old French cran, cren ("notch, fissure"), a derivative of Old French crener ("to notch, split"), from Medieval Latin crenō ("split", v), from Vulgar Latin *crinō ("split, break", v), of obscure origin. Despite a spurious use in Pliny, connection to Latin crēna is doubtful. Instead, probably of Germanic or Celtic origin. Compare Old High German chrinna ("notch, groove, crevice"), Alemannic German Krinne ("small crack, channel, groove"), Low German karn ("notch, groove, crevice, cranny"), Old Irish ara-chrinin ("to perish, decay").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Perhaps for cranky.

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Examples

  • Playtime … The game without searching EVERY shelf, nook, and cranny is 20-25 hours.

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Diary #72: “Hard Choices” 2007

  • Anyone familiar with the Linux world will find a utility to fill any nook and cranny which is another way of saying that the user won't be short of add-on software, to match the supposed depth and diversity of the Windows world.

    PC Advisor News 2009

  • In the weeks which followed, several domiciliary visits were paid, not a shack or tent in Nome escaping, but Fortune lay in his cranny undisturbed.

    WHICH MAKE MEN REMEMBER 2010

  • XOYO, EC2, ThuSam RichardsBugged Out's refreshingly widescreen approach to music has embraced club nights and festivals since the dawn of time well, 1994 but this latest weekender gives free rein to BO's quest to leave no musical cranny unexplored.

    Clubs picks of the week 2012

  • We now occupy every continent and are exploring every nook and cranny of the Earth for new resources.

    David Suzuki: Humans May Have Loaded the Bases, but Nature Bats Last David Suzuki 2011

  • Art seeps into and out of every nook and cranny in human culture, it's how we imagine the world that is due us, and poetry, in particular, is its own language: Metaphor is how our brains process language and experience, more than any other mechanism (the other two primary tools being music and mathematics).

    Bring Out Your Poems 2009

  • White Horse Bookshop 136 High Street, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 1HN, 01672 512071Books are crammed into every nook and cranny of this charming little shop.

    Independent bookshops in south-west of the UK 2011

  • And then re-introduced to it on the half shell, glazed with a thermidor sauce, decorated with crisp, salty sprigs of samphire, all of which makes you want to lick the shell clean, to dig your tongue into every nook and cranny.

    Best UK Restaurant 2010: The Kitchin, Edinburgh Jay Rayner 2010

  • As Congress scrutinizes every nook and cranny of the budget for possible revenue, a surprising court decision is allowing clergy members to buy or live in multiple homes tax-free.

    Tax Break for Clergy Questioned Laura Saunders 2011

  • Art seeps into and out of every nook and cranny in human culture, it's how we imagine the world that is due us, and poetry, in particular, is its own language: Metaphor is how our brains process language and experience, more than any other mechanism (the other two primary tools being music and mathematics).

    Archive 2009-04-01 2009

Comments

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  • Often associated with one or more nooks.

    November 24, 2007

  • Nook and cranny, now there's a spoonerism waiting to happen.

    November 25, 2007