a. [f. LABYRINTH sb. + -INE.]
1. Pertaining to, or of the nature or form of, a labyrinth; having or consisting of many intricate turnings or windings.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., III. (1640), 99. If the Sea voyagers in passing see no signe on these Isles, of fire or smoake, then they perfectly know these Laborinthing Seas, are free from pestilent Raveners.
1747. Spence, Polymetis (L.). She [Ariadne] preserved him in the labyrinthine mazes of Crete.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, i. 53. The long and labyrinthine aisles.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, II. vi. (1862), 163. The midges are celebrating their airy and labyrinthine dances with an amazing adroitness.
1863. N. Hawthorne, Our Old Home, 240. The lanes, alleys and strange labyrinthine courts.
1863. H. W. Bates, Naturalist on Amazon, iv. 132. A large flat Helix with a labyrinthine mouth.
1872. Nicholson, Palæont., 351. The parietes of the teeth are deeply plaited and folded, so as to give rise to a complicated ‘labyrinthine’ pattern in the transverse section of the tooth.
1876. Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), I. 172. Your labyrinthine magnificence at Burlington House.
2. fig. Intricate, complicated, involved, inextricable.
1840. De Quincey, Style, I. Wks. 1890, X. 158. To follow the discussion through endless and labyrinthine sentences.
1853. F. W. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. iv. (1872), 45. An entangled, labyrinthine enigma.
1865. Sat. Rev., 7 Jan., 16/1. [Browning] is apt to entangle the reader in labyrinthine thoughts.
3. Pertaining to the labyrinth of the ear.
1876. Clin. Soc. Trans., IX. 101. Labyrinthine disease.
