crimp

== English == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /kɹɪmp/ Rhymes: -ɪmp === Etymology 1 === From Middle English crimpen (“to be contracted, be drawn together”), from Middle Dutch crimpen, crempen (“to crimp”), from Proto-Germanic *krimpaną (“to shrink, draw back”) (compare related Old English ġecrympan (“to curl”)). Cognate with Dutch krimpen, German Low German krimpen, Faroese kreppa (“crisis”), and Icelandic kreppa (“to bend tightly, clench”). Compare also derivative Middle English crymplen (“to wrinkle”) and causative crempen (“to turn something back, restrain”, literally “to cause to shrink or draw back”), both ultimately derived from the same root. See also cramp. ==== Adjective ==== crimp (obsolete) Easily crumbled; friable; brittle. (obsolete) Weak; inconsistent; contradictory. ==== Noun ==== crimp (plural crimps) A fastener or a fastening method that secures parts by bending metal around a joint and squeezing it together, often with a tool that adds indentations to capture the parts. The natural curliness of wool fibres. (usually in the plural) Hair that is shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks. (obsolete) A card game. (climbing) A small hold with little surface area. (climbing) A grip on such a hold. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Descendants ===== → Welsh: crimp ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== crimp (third-person singular simple present crimps, present participle crimping, simple past and past participle crimped) To press into small ridges or folds, to pleat, to corrugate. (electricity) To fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened. To pinch and hold; to seize. To style hair into a crimp, to form hair into tight curls, to make it kinky. To bend or mold leather into shape. To gash the flesh, e.g. of a raw fish, to make it crisper when cooked. (climbing) to hold using a crimp ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === Uncertain. Likely from etymology 1, above, but the historical development is not clear. Attested since the seventeenth century. ==== Noun ==== crimp (plural crimps) An agent who procures seamen, soldiers, etc., especially by decoying, entrapping, impressing, or seducing them. (specifically, law) One who infringes sub-section 1 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854, applied to a person other than the owner, master, etc., who engages seamen without a license from the Board of Trade. (obsolete) A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced. ==== Verb ==== crimp (third-person singular simple present crimps, present participle crimping, simple past and past participle crimped) (transitive) To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy. Synonym: shanghai ===== Derived terms ===== === Further reading === “crimp”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present. “crimp”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present. “crimp”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. “crimp”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present. “crimp n.1”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present. “crimp n.2”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present. === References === “crimp”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “crimp”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. “crimp”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.