[f. CRIMP sb.1] To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy.
1812. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., IX. 233. Plundering corn and crimping recruits.
1831. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 326. Clutching at him, to crimp him or impress him.
1867. Goldw. Smith, 3 Eng. Statesmen (1882), 187. The cruel folly which crimps a number of ignorant and innocent peasants, dresses them up in uniform … and sends them off to kill and be killed.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 Jan., 2/1. The Egyptian Government crimped negroes in the streets of Cairo.
fig. 1839. Standard, 11 Feb., 4/2. Why not create customers in the Queen’s dominions for our own manufacturing produce, instead of trying at an enormous risk to crimp them in other countries.
