crane

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

• noun Any of various large wading birds of the family Gruidae, having a long neck, long legs, and a long bill.
• noun A similar bird, such as a heron.
• noun A machine for hoisting and moving heavy objects by means of cables attached to a movable boom.
• noun Any of various devices with a swinging arm, as in a fireplace for suspending a pot.
• intransitive verb To hoist or move with or as if with a crane.
• intransitive verb To strain and stretch (the neck, for example) in order to see better.
• intransitive verb To stretch one's neck toward something for a better view.
• intransitive verb To be irresolute; hesitate.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To be stretched out like the neck of a crane.
• Hence In hunting, to look before one leaps; pull up at a dangerous jump.
• To stretch or bend (the neck) like a crane: as, he craned his neck to see what was on the other side of the pillar.
• noun A large grallatorial bird with very long legs and neck, a long straight bill with pervious nostrils near its middle, the head usually naked, at least in part, the hind toe elevated, and the inner secondaries usually enlarged; any bird of the family Gruidæ.
• noun Popularly and erroneously, one of sundry very large grallatorial birds likened to cranes, as herons and storks.
• noun The constellation Grus (which see).
• noun Same as crinet, 1.
• To cause to rise as by a crane: followed by up.
• noun Same as cran.
• noun A crane mounted upon a car and fitted to run or traverse on a railway laid upon the ground, and either self-propelling or driven by a locomotive.
• noun A machine for moving weights, having two motions, one a direct lift and the other horizontal.
• noun A machine for weighing goods, constructed on the principle of the preceding. Such machines are common in market-towns in Ireland. See craner.
• noun An iron arm or beam attached to the back or side of a fireplace and hinged so as to be movable horizontally, used for supporting pots or kettles over a fire.
• noun pl. Naut., supports of iron or timber at a vessel's side for stowing boats or spars upon.
• noun A siphon or bent pipe for drawing liquor out of a cask.

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

• intransitive verb to reach forward with head and neck, in order to see better.
• noun (Zoöl.) A wading bird of the genus Grus, and allied genera, of various species, having a long, straight bill, and long legs and neck.
• noun Any arm which swings about a vertical axis at one end, used for supporting a suspended weight.
• noun A machine for raising and lowering heavy weights, and, while holding them suspended, transporting them through a limited lateral distance. In one form it consists of a projecting arm or jib of timber or iron, a rotating post or base, and the necessary tackle, windlass, etc.; -- so called from a fancied similarity between its arm and the neck of a crane See Illust. of Derrick.
• noun An iron arm with horizontal motion, attached to the side or back of a fireplace, for supporting kettles, etc., over a fire.
• noun A siphon, or bent pipe, for drawing liquors out of a cask.
• noun (Naut.) A forked post or projecting bracket to support spars, etc., -- generally used in pairs. See Crotch, 2.
• noun (Zoöl.), Local, U. S. The American blue heron (Ardea herodias).
• noun (Zoöl.) a dipterous insect with long legs, of the genus Tipula.
• noun See Derrick.
• noun (Zoöl.) See Adjutant, n., 3.
• noun (Mach.) a crane mounted on wheels; esp., an overhead crane consisting of a crab or other hoisting apparatus traveling on rails or beams fixed overhead, as in a machine shop or foundry.
• noun a kind of hydrant with a long swinging spout, for filling locomotive tenders, water carts, etc., with water.
• transitive verb rare To cause to rise; to raise or lift, as by a crane; -- with up.
• transitive verb To stretch, as a crane stretches its neck.

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

• noun A large bird of the order Gruiformes and the family Gruidae having long legs and a long neck which it extends when flying.
• noun A mechanical lifting device, often used for lifting heavy loads for industrial or construction purposes.
• verb transitive To extend (one's neck).
• verb transitive To raise or lower with a crane.

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

• verb stretch (the neck) so as to see better
• noun United States poet (1899-1932)
• noun United States writer (1871-1900)
• noun large long-necked wading bird of marshes and plains in many parts of the world
• noun lifts and moves heavy objects; lifting tackle is suspended from a pivoted boom that rotates around a vertical axis