Crisp

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪsp

Origin

From Middle English crisp ("curly"), from Old English crisp ("curly"), from Latin crispus ("curly")

Full definition of crisp

Adjective

1. (of something seen or heard) Sharp, clearly defined.
• This new television set has a very crisp image.
2. (dated) Curling in stiff curls or ringlets.crisp hair
3. (obsolete) Curled by the ripple of water.
• ShakespeareYou nymphs called Naiads, of the winding brooks ... Leave your crisp channels.
4. Brittle; friable; in a condition to break with a short, sharp fracture.The crisp snow crunched underfoot.
• GoldsmithThe cakes at tea ate short and crisp.
5. Possessing a certain degree of firmness and freshness; in a fresh, unwilted condition.
• Leigh HuntIt laurel has been plucked nine months, and yet looks as hale and crisp as if it would last ninety years.
6. Of weather, air etc.: dry and cold.
7. (of movement, action, etc.) Quick and accurate.
• 2010, December 29, Sam Sheringham, Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton, Stephen Ward's crisp finish from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake's pass 11 minutes into the second half proved enough to give Mick McCarthy's men a famous victory.
8. (of talk, text, etc.) Brief and to the point. (Esp. in make it crisp.)
• It is better to understand the question clearly, pause for a little thinking and give a crisp answer.
• If we ask an expert about a certain query, this expert will often come up with a crisp answer (“yes” or “no”).
• Wodehouse Offing|XV|It was plain that the loss of Phyllis Mills, goofy though she unquestionably was, had hit him a shrewd wallop, and I presumed that he was coming to me for sympathy and heart balm, which I would have been only too pleased to dish out. I hoped, of course, that he would make it crisp and remove himself at an early date, for when the moment came for the balloon to go up I didn't want to be hampered by an audience. When you're pushing someone into a lake, nothing embarrasses you more than having the front seats filled up with goggling spectators.
9. (obsolete) Lively; sparking; effervescing.
• Beaumont and Fletcheryour neat crisp claret
10. Brisk; crackling; cheerful; lively.
• Charles Dickensthe snug, small room, and the crisp fire
11. Of wine: having a refreshing amount of acidity; having less acidity than green wine, but more than a flabby one.

Derived terms

Related terms

Noun

1. (British) A thin slice of fried potato eaten as a snack.

Synonyms

• (US) potato chip, potato crisp.

Verb

1. (transitive) To make crisp.to crisp bacon by frying it
2. (intransitive) To become crisp.
3. (transitive, dated) To curl; to form into ringlets, as hair, or the nap of cloth; to interweave, as the branches of trees.
4. (intransitive, archaic) To undulate or ripple.
• Tennysonto watch the crisping ripples on the beach
5. (transitive, archaic) To cause to undulate irregularly, as crape or water; to wrinkle; to cause to ripple.
• DraytonThe lover with the myrtle sprays
  Adorns his crisped tresses.
• MiltonThe crisped brooks,
  Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Crips
• scrip