crinkle-cranklen.adj.adv.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Sinuoso..that is full of creekes, bosomes, or crinkle-crankles.

1620 Thomas's Dict. (ed. 12) Sinuosus..that hath many turnings..full of crinckle cranckles.

1706 J. Evelyn Acct. Archit. (new ed.) 10 He has look'd a while upon King Henry the VIIth's Chappel at Westminster; Gaz'd on its sharp Angles, Jetties,..Lace and other Cut-work and Crinkle Crankle.

1718 J. Ozell tr. J. Pitton de Tournefort Voy. Levant I. 51 If a Man strikes into any other Path..he is bewildered among a thousand Twistings, Turnings, Sinuosities, Crinkle-Crankles, and Turn-again Lanes.

1818 R. Knight Cursory Disquis. Conventual Church Tewkesbury 106 All this expence of art..has only obtained for it the contemptuous name of ‘crinkle-crankle’ from the followers of Palladio and Vitruvius.

1851 Daily News 3 Sept. 2/1 We heartily wish the whole were..unspoiled by the crinkle-crankle of preposterous dialogue.

1906 F. J. Snell Blackmore Country 112 Its thatched roofs, and low ceilings, and projecting windows, and general crinkle-crankle are eloquent of the olden time.

1966 H. Porter Paper Chase 227 The crinkle-crankle of my own footprints leading up to me.

1804 S. T. Coleridge Notebks. (1962) II. §1889 Views from Etna & such Heights are sublime for they are a true Language crinkle crankle withered dried up lines.

1819 T. Manning Let. 30 May in Lett. to C. Lamb (1925) 121 The sweet ideas hang together like ropes of treacle; one comes curling crinkle crankle after another.

1847 Missionary Repository for Youth 9 92 It will put your eyes out to read those queer crinkle-crankle German letters by this light.

1866 Hansard Commons 9 Apr. 929 The useless patchwork crinkle-crankle style on which the weakmindedness of Members of that House had led them..to expend the public money.

1881 S. Evans Evans's Leicestershire Words (new ed.) Crinkle-crankle adj. and adv., zig-zag; sinuous.

1898 W. C. Perry tr. J. W. von Goethe in Women of Homer ii. 31 The spirit must have some relief under the weight of this ruffled, crinkle-crankle life.

1947 G. Grigson Harp of Aeolus x. 128 Yeats is a pagan, but a purer writer, less crinkle-crankle in his substance.

1982 R. Rendell Master of Moor 139 He made his way down the crinkle-crankle path that traversed Chesney Fell.

2003 Guardian Weekly (Nexis) 22 Oct. The Dundee building waves hello to visitors with its crinkle-crankle roof echoing the rippling Tay behind and below it.

1962 Times 26 Sept. 14/7 Serpentine or crinkle-crankle walls have once or twice been observed.

1979 R. Blythe View in Winter 85 The pock-marks of the shots are still to be seen today on the crinkle-crankle wall.

1999 Church Times 15 Oct. 28/4 Eye is a town with a mayor and a dizzy ring of a castle, a dreadful town hall, a favourite Co-op, a crinkle-crankle wall, one pub, and two thousand inhabitants.

1787 W. Beckford Portuguese Jrnl. 2 Sept. (1954) 194 The windows..are all of an oriental fantastic shape, crinkled and crankled, and supported by twisted pillars of smooth marble.]

1858 J. L. Motley Let. 4 July in Corr. (1889) I. ix. 288 With a wonderful profusion of gilt flaxen crinkle-crankled hair.

2006 H. Willetts Essence of Garden 132 As delicate as the white flowers might be, it is for the foliage that I grow it—dense, glaucous hearts with crinkle-crankled edges.