an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
O.E. cran "large wading bird," from PIE *ger- (cf. Gk. geranos, Welsh garan, Lith. garnys "heron, stork"), perhaps echoic of its cry. Metaphoric use for "machine with a long arm" is first attested 1299. Verb meaning "to stretch (the neck)" is from 1799.