a. (sb.) Also 7 -ique, 7–8 -ick, 7–8 criptic(k. [ad. L. cryptic-us, a. Gr. κρυπτικός fit for concealing, f. κρυπτός hidden; in sense 2, f. CRYPT + -IC.]
1. Hidden, secret, occult, mystical.
Cryptic syllogism, a syllogism of which the premises are not fully or explicitly stated.
a. 1638. Mede, Wks., I. (1672), 187. Not in cryptick or mystical terms, or in … a language which they understand not.
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 130. Her [Nature’s] silent processes and more cryptick methods.
a. 1734. North, Examen, I. iii. ¶ 103. 193. This cryptic Plot.
1882. A. B. Bruce, Parab. Teaching Christ, I. iv. (1891), 109. His doctrine was open and not cryptic.
2. Of the nature of a crypt or vault. rare.
1878. Masque Poets, 26. The uncrumbled cryptic place Of still sarcophagi.
1882. Society, 4 Nov., 21/2. One of those coved cryptic rooms found so generally in South Germany.
† B. sb. A secret or occult method (of communicating knowledge). Obs.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xvii. 64 b. There be also other Diuersities of Methodes…: as that … of Concealement, or Cryptique, &c., which I doe allowe well of.
