crimp
/kɹɪmp/noun, verb
crimp is spelled C-R-I-M-P: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 46,473rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, crimp means “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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of crimp is crimps.
How many letters and syllables are in crimp?
| Letters | 5: C-R-I-M-P |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 46,473rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is crimp?
Crimp appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 46,473rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce crimp?
- /kɹɪmp/
Crimp has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-crimp.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of crimp
- crimps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- crimping participle, present
- crimped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does crimp mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
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
The natural curliness of wool fibres.
- 3
Hair that is shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks.
- 4
obsoleteA card game.
- 5
A small hold with little surface area.
- 6
A grip on such a hold.
- 7
An agent who procures seamen, soldiers, etc., especially by decoying, entrapping, impressing, or seducing them.
- 8
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.
- 9
obsoleteA keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.
verb
- 1
To press into small ridges or folds, to pleat, to corrugate.
Cornish pasties are crimped during preparation.
- 2
To fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened.
He crimped the wire in place.
- 3
To pinch and hold; to seize.
- 4
To style hair into a crimp, to form hair into tight curls, to make it kinky.
- 5
To bend or mold leather into shape.
- 6
To gash the flesh, e.g. of a raw fish, to make it crisper when cooked.
- 7
to hold using a crimp
- 8
To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteEasily crumbled; friable; brittle.
- 2
obsoleteWeak; inconsistent; contradictory.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Crimp in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sertir |
| German | crimpen, falzen, quetschen , wellen |
| Portuguese | crimpar |
| Spanish | crimpar, ponchar, prensar, repulgar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does crimp come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).