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Any bend, turn, or winding, as of a passage. So many turning cranks these have, so many crooks. Spenser.

Formed with, or having, a bend or crank; as, a cranked axle.

To break into bends, turns, or angles; to crinkle. Old Veg's stream . . . drew her humid train aslope, Crankling her banks. J. Philips.

Increase; enlargement. [Obs.] And toward the moon's attractive crescence bend. H. Brooke.

The upper curve of a horse's neck. Throwing the base thong from his bending crest. Shak.

A twist or bend; a turn; a whimsey. [Colloq.] Hudibras.

To draw one's self together as in fear or servility; to bend or crouch with base humility; to wince; hence; to make court in a degrading manner; to fawn. When they were come up to the place where the lions were, the boys that went before were glad to cringe behind, for they were afraid of the lions. Bunyan. Sly hypocri…

To form with short turns, bends, or wrinkles; to mold into inequalites or sinuosities; to cause to wrinkle or curl. The houscrinkled to and fro. Chaucer. Her face all bowsy, Comely crinkled, Wondrously wrinkled. Skelton. The flames through all the casements pushing forth, Like red-not devils crinkled into snakes. Mrs.…

Having short bends, turns, or wrinkles; wrinkled; wavy; zigzag. "The crinkled lightning." Lowell.

A bend, turn, or curve; curvature; flexure. Through lanes, and crooks, and darkness. Phaer.

To bend down; to stoop low; to lie close to the ground with the logs bent, as an animal when waiting for prey, or in fear. Now crouch like a cur. Beau. & Fl.

To bend or curve [Obs.] Crooked and curbed lines. Holland.

To contract or bend into curis or ringlets, as hair; to grow in curls or spirals, as a vine; to be crinkled or contorted; to have a curly appearance; as, leaves lie curled on the ground. Thou seest it [hair] will not curl by nature. Shak.

The act of bending or crooking.

The act of curving, or the state of being bent or curved; a curving or bending, normal or abnormal, as of a line or surface from a rectilinear direction; a bend; a curve. Cowper. The elegant curvature of their fronds. Darwin.

A bending without angles; that wcich is bent; a flexure; as, a curve in a railway or canal.

The state of being curved; a bending in a regular form; crookedness. Holder.

overning body of a cathedral. It consists of the dean, who is chief, and his canons or prebendaries. -- Dean of arches, the lay judge of the court of arches. -- Dean of faculty, the president of an incorporation or barristers; specifically, the president of the incorporation of advocates in Edinburgh. -- Dean of gui…

Surmounted by an ordinary; as, a lion is debruised when a bend or other ordinary is placed over it, as in the cut. The lion of England and the lilies of France without the baton sinister, under which, according to the laws of heraldry, they where debruised in token of his illegitimate birth. Macaulay.…

Bent downward or aside; (Bot.) bending downward in a curve; declined.