"crinkum-crankum" meaning in English

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  "etymology_text": "From crinkle and crankle, or a Low Latin crincum. See 1750 reference and explanation in 1810 citation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "crinkum-crankums",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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      "expansion": "crinkum-crankum (plural crinkum-crankums)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1787, George Colman, Prose on several occasions, T. Cadel, page 95:",
          "text": "(glossary entry) Crincum-crancum,—Lines of irregularity and involution.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1802 February, Peter Thrifty, “A Farmer's Description of the Illuminations in London”, in Sporting Magazine, volume 19, page 286:",
          "text": "I had no notion of being lost in so much light; but I had wander'd out of the main streets, and was got to the crinkum-crankum parts of London, where there are turnings and windings on every side.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1810 November, review of Sir John Sinclair, Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee (1810, London), The Quarterly Review, volume IV, number viii, page 535:",
          "text": "‘... yet if she will come into the court riding backward upon a black ram, with his tail in her hand, and say the words following, the steward is bound, by the custom, to re-admit her to her free-bench: —\n Here I am\n Riding upon a black ram,\n Like a ***** as I am;\n Who, for my Crinkum Crankum,\n Have lost my Binkum Bankum;\n * * * * * *\n * * * * * *\n Therefore, I pray you, Mr. Steward, let me have my land again.’\n[...] That Crinkum Crankum is not less descriptive of tortuosity of opinion as it is of irregularity of conduct.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1842 September, review of J. H. Markland, Remarks on English Churches, and on the Expediency of rendering Sepulchral Monuments [Memorials] subservient to Pious and Christian Uses (Second Edition, 1842, Oxford), The Quarterly Review, volume LXX, number cxl, page 437:",
          "text": "And the artists vainly endeavoured to preserve them by means of vases, pyramids, busts, scrolls, coats-of-arms, projecting cornices, broken pediments, and by what has not inappropriately been called the ‘crinkum-crankum’ style of Elizabeth and James; in which angles and curves are, as before, studiously intermixed, but intermixed without due proportion; and entangle the eye in a labyrinth of fractured lines, without unity, or harmony, or grace.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1849, Herman Melville, Redburn:",
          "text": "“... I tell you men, them's Crinkum-crankum whales.” ¶ “And what is them?” said a sailor. ¶ “Why, them is whales that can't be cotched.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1893, Foster Barham Zincke, Wherstead: Some Materials for Its History, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, page 14:",
          "text": "Forty years ago one who had known it well described it to me as a crincum-crancum kind of house, full of ins and outs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, P. J. O'Rourke, Republican Party Reptile:",
          "text": "Before the Congressional observer team went home, Lugar read a thin-soup statement, crinkum-crankum so packed with \"Pash Commit of Flips to Dem\" that a Hong Kong TV correspondent was moved to ask, \"For those of us who are not native English speakers, could you please tell us what you are saying?\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something elaborately convoluted or tricky."
      ],
      "id": "en-crinkum-crankum-en-noun-basogqwP",
      "links": [
        [
          "convoluted",
          "convoluted"
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          "tricky",
          "tricky"
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "crinkum crankum"
        },
        {
          "word": "crincum-crancum"
        },
        {
          "word": "crincum crancum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "crinkum-crankum"
}

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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From crinkle and crankle, or a Low Latin crincum. See 1750 reference and explanation in 1810 citation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "crinkum-crankums",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1787, George Colman, Prose on several occasions, T. Cadel, page 95:",
          "text": "(glossary entry) Crincum-crancum,—Lines of irregularity and involution.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1802 February, Peter Thrifty, “A Farmer's Description of the Illuminations in London”, in Sporting Magazine, volume 19, page 286:",
          "text": "I had no notion of being lost in so much light; but I had wander'd out of the main streets, and was got to the crinkum-crankum parts of London, where there are turnings and windings on every side.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1810 November, review of Sir John Sinclair, Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee (1810, London), The Quarterly Review, volume IV, number viii, page 535:",
          "text": "‘... yet if she will come into the court riding backward upon a black ram, with his tail in her hand, and say the words following, the steward is bound, by the custom, to re-admit her to her free-bench: —\n Here I am\n Riding upon a black ram,\n Like a ***** as I am;\n Who, for my Crinkum Crankum,\n Have lost my Binkum Bankum;\n * * * * * *\n * * * * * *\n Therefore, I pray you, Mr. Steward, let me have my land again.’\n[...] That Crinkum Crankum is not less descriptive of tortuosity of opinion as it is of irregularity of conduct.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1842 September, review of J. H. Markland, Remarks on English Churches, and on the Expediency of rendering Sepulchral Monuments [Memorials] subservient to Pious and Christian Uses (Second Edition, 1842, Oxford), The Quarterly Review, volume LXX, number cxl, page 437:",
          "text": "And the artists vainly endeavoured to preserve them by means of vases, pyramids, busts, scrolls, coats-of-arms, projecting cornices, broken pediments, and by what has not inappropriately been called the ‘crinkum-crankum’ style of Elizabeth and James; in which angles and curves are, as before, studiously intermixed, but intermixed without due proportion; and entangle the eye in a labyrinth of fractured lines, without unity, or harmony, or grace.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1849, Herman Melville, Redburn:",
          "text": "“... I tell you men, them's Crinkum-crankum whales.” ¶ “And what is them?” said a sailor. ¶ “Why, them is whales that can't be cotched.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1893, Foster Barham Zincke, Wherstead: Some Materials for Its History, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, page 14:",
          "text": "Forty years ago one who had known it well described it to me as a crincum-crancum kind of house, full of ins and outs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, P. J. O'Rourke, Republican Party Reptile:",
          "text": "Before the Congressional observer team went home, Lugar read a thin-soup statement, crinkum-crankum so packed with \"Pash Commit of Flips to Dem\" that a Hong Kong TV correspondent was moved to ask, \"For those of us who are not native English speakers, could you please tell us what you are saying?\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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      "glosses": [
        "Something elaborately convoluted or tricky."
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "crinkum crankum"
    },
    {
      "word": "crincum-crancum"
    },
    {
      "word": "crincum crancum"
    }
  ],
  "word": "crinkum-crankum"
}