ppl. a. [In form, f. CRUMPLE v. + -ED; but found much earlier than any finite part of the verb.]
1. Bent together by compression, incurved, crooked (esp. of parts of the body bent by malformation or disease).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8087 (Cott.). Crumpled knes [T. crompled knees] and boce on bak.
c. 1440. Bone Flor., 1979. In the palsye can he schake, And was crompylde and crokyd therto.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. III. l. For that old crumpled wight gan go upstraight.
2. Bent spirally, curled. Hence Crumpled-horn a.
14[?]. Prose Legends, in Anglia, VIII. 135. Also seint Paul seiþ not in crumpled [Wyclif 1 Tim. ii. 9 writhen] lokkys or golde.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 50. Their tayls with croompled knot twisting.
a. 1750[?]. Nursery rhyme, ‘House that Jack Built.’ This is the Cow with the crumpled Horn, that tossed the Dog.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 89. Horns short and generally curled, or what some call crumpled horn.
1886. W. G. Wood-Martin, Lake Dwellings Irel., I. iv. 77. Specimens of the crania of four distinct breeds … the straight-horn … the crumpled-horn … the short-horn … the Hornless.
3. Crushed into creases and folds; crushed out of shape, out of smoothness or tidiness. a. Applied to a wrinkled, creased or ‘tumbled’ condition of things flexible, as cloth, paper.
1535. Coverdale, Job vii. 5. My skynne is wythered and crompled together.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 203. Break, and pull off all crumpl’d dry’d Leaves.
166[?]. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 179. Finding the cloth laid, and much crumpled … I grew angry.
1877. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. iii. 192. The strong brass cylinder … was found collapsed and crumpled like a piece of paper.
1888. Anna K. Green, Behind Closed Doors, ii. Mrs. A. took a small and crumpled note out of her pocket.
b. Applied to strata crushed into folds by lateral pressure; contorted.
1854. Hooker, Himal. Jrnls., I. xi. 251. Granite appeared in large veins in the crumpled gneiss.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 650. Crumpled or folded beds of clay.
4. Wrinkled, marked with lines and furrows, such as are caused by compression.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 56. The second sort with the croompled leafe.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xxix. 41. Medesweete … hath leaues … crompled, and wrinckled.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 64/2. The Crumpled Plantan is a round crumpled Leaf.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 400. The trembling poppies shed … their crumpled leaves.
b. Of hair. (Cf. CRUMPLING vbl. sb.)
1872. Miss Thackeray, Old Kensington, ii. (ed. 2), 7. Dolly’s … crumpled bronze hair.
