crisp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹɪsp/
text: -
rhymes: -ɪsp
Forms: form: crisps
Etymology: The adjective is derived partly from the following:
* Sense 1: Middle English crisp (“curly, wavy”), from Old English crisp (“curly”), from Latin crispus (“of hair: crimped, curly”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kris-, from *(s)ker- (“to bend; to turn”).
* Sense 2: from the above, and probably also onomatopoeic, representing a crinkling or crunching sound.
Doublet of crape and crepe.
Adjective sense 2.2.3 (“of air, weather, etc.: cool and dry”) is transferred from a description of frost or snow as “crisp”, that is, crunchy.
The noun is derived partly from the following:
* Middle English crisp (“light, crinkled fabric; kind of pastry; crinkliness or roughness of skin”), from crisp (adjective) (see above).
* Modern English crisp (adjective) (“having a consistency which is hard yet brittle”).
Senses: examples: text: Edward, give me another of those delicious olives. / What's that? Potato crisps? No, I can't endure them.
ref: 1949 August 22 (first performance), T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, The Cocktail Party: A Comedy, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Samuel French […], published 1950, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 11:
text: 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.
ref: 2009, Sid Waddell, “Satan’s Citadel”, in The Road Back Home: The Bittersweet Memoirs of a Geordie Coal Miner’s Son, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 210:
text: Turn you inside out and lick you like a crisp packet
ref: 2014 August 14, Joe Newman, Thom Green, Gus Unger-Hamilton, “Every Other Freckle”, in This Is All Yours (LIB166CD), performed by alt-J, London: Infectious Music, →OCLC:
text: As I sit in front of the TV angrily eating crisps, it comes to me. I will challenge her to a race.
ref: 2016, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons; Steve Coogan, “Shirt Back On Now”, in Alan Partridge: Nomad, London: Trapeze, The Orion Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 47:
glosses: Senses relating to something brittle.
In full potato crisp: a thin slice of potato which has been deep-fried until it is brittle and crispy, and eaten when cool; they are typically packaged and sold as a snack.
synonyms: chip
potato chip
examples: text: kale crisps    prawn crisp
text: 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!)
ref: 2019, Katie Ginger, “About the Author”, in Snowflakes at Mistletoe Cottage, London: HQ, HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN:
glosses: Senses relating to something brittle.
In full potato crisp: a thin slice of potato which has been deep-fried until it is brittle and crispy, and eaten when cool; they are typically packaged and sold as a snack.
Sometimes with a descriptive word: a crispy, savoury snack made of some other ingredient(s) (such as cornmeal or a vegetable) which is baked or deep-fried and eaten like a potato crisp.
synonyms: chip
potato chip
glosses: Senses relating to something brittle.
A type of baked dessert consisting of fruit topped with a crumbly mixture made with fat, flour, and sugar; a crumble.
synonyms: crunch#English: dessert
glosses: Senses relating to something brittle.
A banknote; also, a number of banknotes collectively.
examples: text: 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!
ref: 1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book XII. Isabel, Mrs. Glendenning, the Portrait, and Lucy.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, section II, pages 262–263:
text: 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!
ref: 1872, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Riley—Newspaper Correspondent”, in Mark Twain’s Sketches. […], author’s edition, London: George Routledge & Sons, →OCLC, page 215:
glosses: Senses relating to something brittle.
Chiefly in to a crisp: a food item that has been overcooked, or a thing which has been burned, to the point of becoming charred or dried out.
examples: text: Alon[zo]. Anon they’l cut off ſlivers from us, as they did from the vvhole Ox, in St. James’s Fair. / Gonz[alo]. Oh, ’tis intollerable: methinks I hear a great ſhe Devil, call for [a] Groats vvorth of the Criſpe of my Countenance.—They are all for Griſtle.
ref: 1674 November 29 (probable first performance; Gregorian calendar), T. Duffett [i.e., Thomas Duffet], The Mock-tempest: Or The Enchanted Castle. […], London: […] William Cademan […], published 1675, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 19:
glosses: Senses relating to something brittle.
The crispy rind of roast pork; crackling.
qualifier: obsolete except UK
examples: text: They are proud, and vveare their hayre pretty long, and about their criſpes vvreath a valuable Shaſh or Tulipant; […]
ref: 1638, Tho[mas] Herbert, “Of Java Major”, in Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. […], 2nd edition, London: […] R[ichard] Bi[sho]p for Iacob Blome and Richard Bishop, →OCLC, book III, page 325:
glosses: Senses relating to something curled.
A curly lock of hair, especially one which is tightly curled.
examples: text: Vpon her head a ſiluer criſp ſhe pind, / Looſe vvauing on her ſhoulders vvith the vvind.
ref: 1584, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[The Historie of Iudith, in Forme of a Poeme. […].] The Fourth Booke of Iudith.”, in Tho[mas] Hudson, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 47:
text: [T]he nevv deuiſed names of Stuffes and Colours, Crispe, Tamet, Pluſh, Tabine, Caffa, […]
ref: 1619, Samuel Purchas, “Fashion Suted and Attired from the Head to the Foot”, in Purchas His Pilgrim. Microcosmus, or The Historie of Man. […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby] for Henry Fetherstone, →OCLC, page 268:
glosses: Senses relating to something curled.
A delicate fabric, possibly resembling crepe, especially used by women for veils or other head coverings in the past; also, a head covering made of this fabric.
Derived terms: burn to a crisp
cheese crisp
crisp butty
crisp sandwich
crisp sarnie
crisplike
crispwich
piece and crisps
prawn crisp