adj
Meaning 1
Easily crumbled; friable; brittle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
crimp
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/kɹɪmp/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪmp
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CMU ARPABET: K R IH1 M P Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Weak; inconsistent; contradictory.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- The strap was held together by a simple metal crimp.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
The natural curliness of wool fibres.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
Hair that is shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: plural-normally
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
A card game.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
A small hold with little surface area.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: climbing, hobbies, lifestyle, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
A grip on such a hold.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: climbing, hobbies, lifestyle, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
An agent who procures seamen, soldiers, etc., especially by decoying, entrapping, impressing, or seducing them.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: specifically
Topics: law
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 11
A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
To press into small ridges or folds, to pleat, to corrugate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- Cornish pasties are crimped during preparation.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 13
To fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: business, electrical-engineering, electricity, electromagnetism, energy, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics
Examples
- He crimped the wire in place.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 14
To pinch and hold; to seize.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 15
To style hair into a crimp, to form hair into tight curls, to make it kinky.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 16
To bend or mold leather into shape.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 17
To gash the flesh, e.g. of a raw fish, to make it crisper when cooked.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 18
to hold using a crimp
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: climbing, hobbies, lifestyle, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 19
To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: shanghai
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 20
a lock of hair that has been artificially waved or curled
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: lock, curl, ringlet, whorl
Narrower terms: pin curl, spit curl, kiss curl
noun
Meaning 21
someone who tricks or coerces men into service as sailors or soldiers
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: crimper
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: kidnapper, kidnaper, abductor, snatcher
noun
Meaning 22
an angular or rounded shape made by folding
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a fold in the napkin
- a crease in his trousers
- a plication on her blouse
- a flexure of the colon
- a bend of his elbow
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: fold, crease, plication, flexure, bend
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: angular shape, angularity
Narrower terms: pleat, plait, kink, twist, twirl, pucker, ruck
verb
Meaning 23
curl tightly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- crimp hair
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: crape, frizzle, frizz, kink up, kink
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: curl, wave
verb
Meaning 24
make ridges into by pinching together
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pinch
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: fold, fold up, turn up
Narrower terms: flute
History
Etymology
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.
Uncertain. Likely from etymology 1, above, but the historical development is not clear. Attested since the seventeenth century.
Across languages
Translations
25 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Catalan: garsa — fastener or method
- Polish: plisa — fastener or method
- Russian: обжи́м (obžím) — fastener or method
- Catalan: garsar — to fasten by bending metal
- Czech: nalisovat — to fasten by bending metal
- French: sertir — to fasten by bending metal
- German: crimpen — to fasten by bending metal
- German: falzen — to fasten by bending metal
- German: quetschen — to fasten by bending metal
- Italian: crimpare — to fasten by bending metal
- Polish: fałdować — to fasten by bending metal
- Polish: sfałdować — to fasten by bending metal
- Polish: marszczyć — to fasten by bending metal
- Polish: zmarszczyć — to fasten by bending metal
- Polish: plisować — to fasten by bending metal
- Polish: splisować — to fasten by bending metal
- Portuguese: crimpar — to fasten by bending metal
- Romanian: sertiza — to fasten by bending metal
- Russian: обжима́ть (obžimátʹ) — to fasten by bending metal
- Russian: обжа́ть (obžátʹ) — to fasten by bending metal
- Spanish: crimpar — to fasten by bending metal
- Spanish: ponchar — to fasten by bending metal
- Catalan: rinxolar — to style hair into a grimp
- German: wellen — to style hair into a grimp
- Polish: karbować — to style hair into a grimp