crinkum-crankum

Example Sentences

• "(glossary entry) Crincum-crancum,—Lines of irregularity and involution."
• "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."
• "‘... 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: — Here I am Riding upon a black ram, Like a ***** as I am; Who, for my Crinkum Crankum, Have lost my Binkum Bankum; * * * * * * * * * * * * Therefore, I pray you, Mr. Steward, let me have my land again.’ [...] That Crinkum Crankum is not less descriptive of tortuosity of opinion as it is of irregularity of conduct."
• "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."
• "“... 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.”"
• "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."