crank letter

noun

a hostile or fanatical letter, often sent anonymously.

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, crank call . An irrational, fanatical, or hostile letter or telephone call. For example, The office was flooded with mail, including a lot of crank letters , or Harriet was upset enough by the crank calls to notify the police . This expression employs crank in the sense of “irrational person.” The first term dates from the mid-1900s, the variant from the 1960s.

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Example Sentences

It was published by a tabloid newspaper as a sort of gag––a strange crank letter.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

crankle Cranko

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