Defn: To cause to contract, or to render more crisp, as the flesh of a fish, by gashing it, when living, with a knife; as, to crimp skate, etc. Crimping house, a low lodging house, into which men are decoyed and plied with drink, to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers. — Crimping iron. (a) An iron instrument for crimping and curling the hair. (b) A crimping machine. — Crimping machine, a machine with fluted rollers or with dies, for crimping ruffles leather, iron, etc. — Crimping pin, an instrument for crimping or puckering the border of a lady's cap.
CRIMP
Crimp, a.
1. Easily crumbled; friable; brittle. [R.] Now the fowler . . . treads the crimp earth. J. Philips.
2. Weak; inconsistent; contradictory. [R.] The evidance is crimp; the witnesses swear backward and forward, and contradict themselves. Arbuthnot.
CRIMP
Crimp, n.
1. A coal broker. [Prov. Eng.] De Foe.
2. One who decoys or entraps men into the military or naval service. Marryat.
3. A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.
4. Hair which has been crimped; — usually in pl.
5. A game at cards. [Obs.] B. Jonson. Boot crimp. See under Boot.