i Register
In some senses, crisp is marked as dated, archaic, obsolete, slang, figuratively. Watch for register when choosing this word.
crisp
/kɹɪsp/
adj 5noun 5verb 5name 4
Collocations
6(noun.)
ADJ
potato | plain | cheese and onion, ready salted, salt and vinegar, etc.
QUANT
bag, packet
She bought a large bag of salt and vinegar crisps at the supermarket yesterday.
VERB + CRISP
eat
CRISP + NOUN
bag, packet
Definitions
adj
1
Senses relating to curliness.
crisp hair
A certeyn lightning on his headtop gliſtered harmeleſſe. / His criſp locks frizeling, his temples prettelye ſtroaking.
2
Senses relating to curliness.
[T]hree times did they drinke / Vpon agreement of ſvvift Seuerns floud, / VVho then affrighted vvith their bloudie lookes, / Ran fearefully among the trembling reedes, / And hid his criſpe-head in the hollovv banke, / Bloud-ſtained vvith theſe valiant combatants, […]
You Nimphs cald Nayades of yͤ vvindring brooks, / VVith your ſedg'd crovvnes, and euer-harmleſſe lookes, / Leaue your criſpe channels, and on this greene-Lane / Anſvvere your ſummons, Iuno do's command.
3
Senses relating to curliness.
Feathered VVater Moſs. Branched. Leaves criſp, feathered, undulated, pointing tvvo vvays.
4
Senses relating to curliness.
One whyle hée at my necke dooth ſnatch / Another whyle my cléere criſp legges be ſtriueth for too catch, / Or trippes at mée: and euerywhere the vauntage he dooth watch.
Common Mother [Nature] […] vvhoſe ſelfeſame Mettle […] Engenders the blacke Toad, and Adder blevv, / The gilded Nevvt, and eyeleſſe venom'd VVorme, / VVith all th'abhorred Births belovv Criſpe Heauen, / VVhereon Hyperions quickning fire doth ſhine: […]
5
Senses relating to brittleness.
The crisp snow crunched underfoot.
Our customers in the produce department expect crisp apples and firm bananas.
noun
1
Senses relating to something brittle.
Edward, give me another of those delicious olives. / What's that? Potato crisps? No, I can't endure them.
I was buying some crisps and pop when there was a noisy clatter on the bare floorboards and something hit my right heel. It was a white cue ball.
2
Senses relating to something brittle.
kale crisps prawn crisp
When she’s not writing, Katie spends her time with her husband and two kids, and their dogs: Wotsit, the King Charles spaniel, and Skips, the three-legged rescue dog. (And yes, they are both named after crisps!)
3
Senses relating to something brittle.
4
Senses relating to something brittle.
5
Senses relating to something brittle.
He bears my name—Glendinning. I will disown it; were it like this dress, I would tear my name off from me, and burn it till it shriveled to a crisp!
And, oh, to think she should meet such a death at last!—a sitting over the red-hot stove at three o'clock in the morning and went to sleep and fell on it and was actually roasted! Not just frizzled up a bit, but literally roasted to a crisp!
verb
1
Senses relating to brittleness.
to crisp bacon by frying it
c. 1752, Elizabeth Moxon, English Housewifry, Leeds: James Lister, “To make Hare Soop,” p. 6, […] put it into a Dish, with a little stew’d Spinage, crisp’d Bread, and a few forc’d-meat Balls.
2
Senses relating to brittleness.
It was the form of a man of middle age, the hair white, but the beard only crisped with grey,
[…] Monte Pellegrino, a huge, inordinate mass of pinkish rock, hardly crisped with the faintest vegetation, looming up to heaven from the sea.
3
Senses relating to brittleness.
to put celery into ice water to crisp
[…] the air chilled at sunset, the ground crisped, and ere dusk, a hoar frost was insidiously stealing over growing grass and unfolding bud.
4
Senses relating to brittleness.
[…] everything had become so still that the crisping of the snow under foot might be heard nearly half a verst round.
[…] the wheels [of the carriage] made their little crisping over the fine metal of the driveway.
5
Senses relating to curliness.
[…] those crisped snaky golden locks / Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
1609, Douay-Rheims Bible, 2 Chronicles 4.5, […] the brimme therof was as it were the brimme of a chalice, or of a crisped lilie:
Thesaurus
Synonyms
noun — a thin crisp slice of potato fried in deep fat
adjective — (of something seen or heard) clearly defined
adjective — tender and brittle
Antonyms
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
601
crisp hair
Wiktionary02
A certeyn lightning on his headtop gliſtered harmeleſſe. / His criſp locks frizeling, his temples prettelye ſtroaking.
Wiktionary03
Bulls are more Criſpe vpon the Fore-head than Covves; […]
Wiktionary04
Edward, give me another of those delicious olives. / What's that? Potato crisps? No, I can't endure them.
Wiktionary05
I was buying some crisps and pop when there was a noisy clatter on the bare floorboards and something hit my right heel. It was a white cue ball.
Wiktionary06
Turn you inside out and lick you like a crisp packet
WiktionaryUsage Notes
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