[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That crackles; see the verb.
1567. Drant, Horace’s Epist., xvii. F j. If crackling cartes, if tauernes noyse if stiffling dust disease the.
a. 1635. Corbet, Poems (1807), 226. Makinge thy peace with Heaven for some late fault, With holy meale and cracklinge salt.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, I. 109. I knew a careful swain, Who gave them to the crackling flames.
1870. Huxley, Lay Serm., i. (ed. 5), 3. Crackling wit.
Hence Cracklingly adv.
1611. Cotgr., Frioler, to consume … cracklingly, or with a noise, as fire does stubble.
1855. Western Lit. Messenger (U.S.), March, 38/2. The flames … now seizing upon some dead monumental pine, and leaping and laughing, seat themselves cracklingly in its top, the whole heavens in a glow.
1855. Chamb. Jrnl., IV. 66/1. As he creeps cracklingly along [through a wood].
1887. Morn. Post, 20 Sept., 2/7. There may, it is true, be seen carriages and vehicles of different descriptions driving around its unwatered and cracklingly noisy gravel drives.
