Added 9 October 2026
crimp
/kɹɪmp/ adjective
adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about crimp at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
noun
-
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 strap was held together by a simple metal crimp.
- The natural curliness of wool fibres.
- Hair that is shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks.
verb
noun
- An agent who procures seamen, soldiers, etc., especially by decoying, entrapping, impressing, or seducing them.
- 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.
- A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)