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Rift vs Cranny - What's the difference?

rift | cranny | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between rift and cranny

is that rift is to form a rift while cranny is to haunt or enter by crannies.

As an adjective cranny is

quick; giddy; thoughtless.

rift

English

(wikipedia rift)

Etymology 1

Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish/Norwegian '' 'breach', Old Norse ''rífa 'to tear'. More at rive.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A chasm or fissure.
  • My marriage is in trouble, the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
    The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
  • A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
  • * 1931 , William Faulkner, Sanctuary , Vintage 1993, page 130:
  • I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.
  • A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To form a .
  • To cleave; to rive; to split.
  • to rift an oak
  • * Wordsworth
  • To dwell these rifted rocks between.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) rypta.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To belch.
  • Etymology 3

    Verb

    (head)
  • (Spenser)

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    cranny

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) crany, .

    Noun

    (crannies)
  • A small, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance.
  • * Arbuthnot
  • He peeped into every cranny .
  • * Dryden
  • In a firm building, the cavities ought not to be filled with rubbish, but with brick or stone fitted to the crannies .
  • A tool for forming the necks of bottles, etc.
  • Verb

  • To break into, or become full of, crannies.
  • * Golding
  • The ground did cranny everywhere.
  • To haunt or enter by crannies.
  • * Byron
  • All tenantless, save to the crannying wind.

    Etymology 2

    Perhaps for cranky.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (UK, dialect) quick; giddy; thoughtless
  • (Halliwell)
    (Webster 1913)