▪ I. crink, n.
Also 6–7 krink(e.
[f. crink v., or directly from vb. stem crinc-an: see crank n.1]
1. A twist, bend, or winding; a winding crevice, furrow, or channel. Cf. crank n.2 1. Now dial.
| 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. viii. (1593) 186 A house with many nooks and krinkes. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 188/1 Gutters are the Slifters, or Krinks, in the beam of a Stags horn. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Crink, a twist or bend. |
† 2. fig. An intricate turn or twist of thought or speech; a tortuous shift or sleight. Obs.
| 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. vii. (1593) 176 The krinks of certaine prophesies surmounting farre above The reach of ancient wits to read. 1583 ― Calvin on Deut. xv. 89 Such a crink was practised against mee. 1587 ― De Mornay xx. 313 To take away the doubts, and to auoyde the krinks inuented anew by certaine Libertines. |
3. dial. (See quots.)
| 1888 Berksh. Gloss. s.v. Cranks, A person is said to be full of ‘crinks and cranks’ when generally complaining of ill health. [1883 Hampsh. Gloss., Crink-crank words are long words..not properly understood.] |
▪ II. crink, v.1
(krɪŋk)
Also 6 krink.
[possibly a survival of OE. crincan to contract or draw oneself together in a bent form (see crank n.1), but more prob. repr. an earlier *crenk:—krankjan, causal deriv. of crincan. In mod. use, however, perh. formed anew from crinkle.]
Hence ˈcrinking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1. trans. To bend or twist; to form into furrows or wrinkles; to crinkle. dial.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 93 As the wakening wind..o'er the water crink'd the curdled wave. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Crink, to twist, or wrench painfully. ‘I've crinked my neck.’..When a man bends a piece of iron by hammering it he is said to crink it. |
† 2. intr. (fig.) To use tortuous shifts or sleights.
| 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xxxix. 231 If wee vse any craftinesse or krinking. Ibid. 234 He which thinketh to further himselfe by his crinking, pilling and deceyuing. |
▪ III. crink, v.2
[Echoic: cf. creak, crick, crinkle, etc.]
intr. To make a sound in which cricking and chinking blend. Hence ˈcrinking ppl. a.
| 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 174 The noisy cicadæ that..make the woods ring with their pertinacious crinking. Ibid. (ed. 7) 105 Those crinking merry-voiced denizens of our summer-fields. |