crank letter
1
8.6
- noun
- Offensive
- After reading the crank letter, she felt uncomfortable knowing someone was harassing her without revealing their identity.
Examples
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The editor dismissed the crank letter as the ramblings of an upset reader who didn’t agree with the magazine's viewpoint.
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You got another one of these crank letters today.
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It's a piece of bullshit like all those other crank letters.
Fiction book (1990) -
The police received a crank letter that threatened public safety and was signed anonymously.
Synonyms
24
4.6
Mean or threatening messages sent to upset someone
1
8.5
An anonymous letter that says cruel things to hurt someone
How Hostile
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally formed from 'crank' + 'letter', so a B1 learner who knows 'crank' (an eccentric/irritable person) and 'letter' can infer it is a letter written by a crank. However, the specific nuance that such letters are hostile, threatening, and typically anonymous is not fully predictable from the constituents and requires pragmatic/idiomatic knowledge.
Etymology
The noun crank letter likely comes from an older use of crank meaning an odd, angry person. Imagine someone with a 'twisted' mind who writes angry, secret letters; that image explains why a crank letter means a 'hostile or threatening letter'.