What does "crimp" mean?
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.
Crimp
/kɹɪmp/ adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: 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.
- Grammar: crimp is listed as adj, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: crease, fold, abduce, abduct.
- Useful contrasts: assist, expand, facilitate.
- Usage evidence: Dampen the edges of the pastry in the dish with a little cold water, cover with the lid, press the edges firmly together, and crimp to decorate.
How to use "crimp"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "crimp" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "crimp" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "crimp" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "crimp" is acting as adj, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "crease" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "crimp", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 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."
- 2 An agent who procures seamen, soldiers, etc., especially by decoying, entrapping, impressing, or seducing them.
"Indeed, when a maſter of a ſhip, ſuppoſe at Jamaica, hath loſt any of his hands, he applies of courſe to a crimp[…]who makes it his buſineſs to ſeduce the men belonging to ſome other ſhip,"
- 3 a lock of hair that has been artificially waved or curled wordnet
- 4 The natural curliness of wool fibres.
- 5 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. specifically
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 someone who tricks or coerces men into service as sailors or soldiers wordnet
- 7 Hair that is shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks. plural-normally
- 8 A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced. obsolete
- 9 an angular or rounded shape made by folding wordnet
- 10 A card game. obsolete
"Lady Loadstone: Laugh, and keep company, at gleek or crimp. / Mistress Polish: Your ladyship says right, crimp sure will cure her."
- 11 A small hold with little surface area.
- 12 A grip on such a hold.
Verb
- 1 To press into small ridges or folds, to pleat, to corrugate.
"Cornish pasties are crimped during preparation."
- 2 To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy. transitive
"[…]nay, where in any corner he can spy a tall man, clutching at him, to crimp him or impress him."
- 3 curl tightly wordnet
- 4 To fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened.
"He crimped the wire in place."
- 5 make ridges into by pinching together wordnet
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 To pinch and hold; to seize.
- 7 To style hair into a crimp, to form hair into tight curls, to make it kinky.
- 8 To bend or mold leather into shape.
- 9 To gash the flesh, e.g. of a raw fish, to make it crisper when cooked.
- 10 to hold using a crimp
Adjective
- 1 Easily crumbled; friable; brittle. obsolete
"Now the Fowler […] Treads the crimp Earth,"
- 2 Weak; inconsistent; contradictory. obsolete
"The evidence is crimp; the witnesses swear backward and forward, and contradict themselves"
Antonyms
Example
"Dampen the edges of the pastry in the dish with a little cold water, cover with the lid, press the edges firmly together, and crimp to decorate."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "crimp"?
Common synonyms include: crease, fold, abduce, abduct, abductor, aqueduct.
How do you use "crimp" in a sentence?
Dampen the edges of the pastry in the dish with a little cold water, cover with the lid, press the edges firmly together, and crimp to decorate.
How do you pronounce "crimp"?
Pronounced /kɹɪmp/.
Etymology
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.
Etymology 2
Uncertain. Likely from etymology 1, above, but the historical development is not clear. Attested since the seventeenth century.