[Corresponds to MDu. crimpen intr., to contract or draw oneself together, to shrink, become wrinkled or shrivelled (with cold, etc.), with weak causal krempen, krimpen to draw together, shrivel up, wrinkle, Du. krimpen to shrink, shrivel, diminish, E.Fris. krimpen trans. and intr., to crook, wind, draw in or together, shrink, become tight, compressed, shorter, or less, Da. krympe trans., to wrinkle, shrink (cloth), Sw. krympa to shrink, to sponge; OHG. chrimphan, MHG. krimpfen to draw oneself together convulsively. For ulterior etymology, see the note to CRAMP sb.1 Not known in OE.; the only ME. example found is that in the intr. sense 1; otherwise the verb belongs to the 17–19th c., and may be the causal derivative.]
1. intr. To be compressed, pinched or indented (as e.g. the body of insects). (In ppl. a. crimping.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (1495), 741. Beestys with crympynge body haue sharpe wytte and felynge … as bein and amptes that here and smel aferre.
† 2. trans. To curl. (In pa. pple. crimped.) Obs.
1698. Tyson, in Phil. Trans., XX. 112. The Verge or Rime of the outward Ear seem’d to be crimp’d.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Crimpt, curled.
3. To compress or pinch into minute parallel plaits or folds; to frill.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, III. i. Crimpt ribbons in her head-dress.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xiv. To crimp the little frill that bordered his shirt-collar.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxvii. The maid is crimping their … ringlets with hot tongs.
1859. Lewes, Sea-side Stud., 157. By crimping or dividing the edge of the cup, prehensile organs of less or greater length and power arising thereby.
1861. Sala, Dutch Pict., xix. 295. [She] thought far too much of crimping her tresses.
b. To wrinkle or crumple minutely, to crisp the surface of.
1772. W. Bailey, Descr. Useful Machines, I. 229. The Italian method of crimping crapes. Ibid., I. 230. A large specimen of crape crimped and manufactured exactly like the Italian.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 209. The breeze, with feather-feet, Crimping o’er the waters sweet.
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 398. The crimping, woolly effect of half a gale from the south-west.
c. Techn. To make flutings in (a brass cartridge case), so as to turn the end inward and back upon the wad, in order to confine the charge; to corrugate.
4. To cause (the flesh of fish) to contract and become firm by gashing or cutting it before rigor mortis sets in.
1698. A. Van Leeuwenhoek, in Phil. Trans., XX. 174. The Muscles of a Fish that has been dead for a good while, do not contract themselves when they are cut in Pieces, which we call Krimping.
1743. Lond. & Country Brewer, III. (ed. 2), 170. The Cook cuts [a fresh Cod] into several small Pieces, in order, as they call it, to crimp it, by letting them lie in hard cold Spring-Water about an Hour.
1789. G. Keate, Pelew Isl., 302. The grey mullet, which they crimped, and frequently eat raw.
1804. A. Carlisle, in Phil. Trans., XCV. 23. The remarkable effects of crimping fish by immersion in water, after the usual signs of life have disappeared.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 39. Small chub …. if crimped and fried dry, are by no means so bad.
b. transf. To slash, to gash.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep. (1861), II. 359. Those who attempted resistance were crimped alive like fishes and left to gasp themselves to death in lingering torture.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, xiii. (1869), 435. Among the females … the only ceremony of importance was scarring the back. Eyre indeed calls it tattooing, but ‘crimping’ would be, I think, a more correct expression.
5. spec. To bend or mold into shape (leather for the uppers of boots, or for a saddle).
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., 648/1. The curved bar which supports the form upon which the leather is crimped.
6. ‘To pinch and hold; to seize’ (Webster).
(No quotation given or source named.)
