"crank the handle" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cranks the handle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cranking the handle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cranked the handle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cranked the handle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "crank the handle (third-person singular simple present cranks the handle, present participle cranking the handle, simple past and past participle cranked the handle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Business",
          "orig": "en:Business",
          "parents": [
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "Social sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Rebecca Jordan, Kirsty Weir, In Good Company: The essential business start-up guide for women, A & C Black, page 229:",
          "text": "There are various ways you can do this, including creating capacity by building a strong team, or by setting the sales stream up in such a way that anyone can crank the handle and keep the products going out and the customer demand coming in.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Brad Thor, The Last Patriot, Atria Books:",
          "text": "“What do you mean?” said Ozbek. “All he has to do is slide some paper in there, ink the quill and crank the handle”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Nick Gifford, Information Security: Managing the Legal Risks, Australia: CCH:",
          "text": "The suspension of one's critical faculty is not possible in a risk management exercsie. It is not simply a “crank the handle” process: intelligent analysis needs to be applied at all times throughout the activity, including critical review of the appropriateness of any methodology for an organisation's specific circumstances.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Robert Mnookin, Bargaining with the Devil: When the Negotiate, When to Fight, Simon & Schuster, pages 32–33:",
          "text": "These five questions provide a framework for analyzing the benefits and costs, opportunities and risks. It won't provide a bright-line test or a crank-the-handle algorithm. But you shouldn't be looking for that here anyway.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To perform a process; to do some work."
      ],
      "id": "en-crank_the_handle-en-verb-i5WR4ns8",
      "links": [
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(business, idiomatic) To perform a process; to do some work."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-crank the handle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/96/En-au-crank_the_handle.ogg/En-au-crank_the_handle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/En-au-crank_the_handle.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "crank the handle"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cranks the handle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cranking the handle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cranked the handle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cranked the handle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "crank the handle (third-person singular simple present cranks the handle, present participle cranking the handle, simple past and past participle cranked the handle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Business"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Rebecca Jordan, Kirsty Weir, In Good Company: The essential business start-up guide for women, A & C Black, page 229:",
          "text": "There are various ways you can do this, including creating capacity by building a strong team, or by setting the sales stream up in such a way that anyone can crank the handle and keep the products going out and the customer demand coming in.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Brad Thor, The Last Patriot, Atria Books:",
          "text": "“What do you mean?” said Ozbek. “All he has to do is slide some paper in there, ink the quill and crank the handle”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Nick Gifford, Information Security: Managing the Legal Risks, Australia: CCH:",
          "text": "The suspension of one's critical faculty is not possible in a risk management exercsie. It is not simply a “crank the handle” process: intelligent analysis needs to be applied at all times throughout the activity, including critical review of the appropriateness of any methodology for an organisation's specific circumstances.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Robert Mnookin, Bargaining with the Devil: When the Negotiate, When to Fight, Simon & Schuster, pages 32–33:",
          "text": "These five questions provide a framework for analyzing the benefits and costs, opportunities and risks. It won't provide a bright-line test or a crank-the-handle algorithm. But you shouldn't be looking for that here anyway.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To perform a process; to do some work."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(business, idiomatic) To perform a process; to do some work."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-crank the handle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/96/En-au-crank_the_handle.ogg/En-au-crank_the_handle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/En-au-crank_the_handle.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "crank the handle"
}