[f. CRISP a.: cf. L. crispāre to curl, crisp, crimp, f. crispus.]
1. trans. To curl into short, stiff, wavy folds, or crinkles; to crimp.
1340. [see CRISPED 1].
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Calamistrum … a pinne of wodde or yvory, to trime or crispe heare.
1617. B. Jonson, Vis. Delight. As Zephyr blows … The rivers run as smoothed by his hand: Only their heads are crisped by his stroke.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 52. A blacke gowne … lined quite through with white silke cipres, pleated and crisped about the necke, with a deepe fringe.
1644. Bulwer, Chirol., To Rdr. A v b. We … wrinkle our forehead in dislike, crispe our nose in anger.
1747. Hervey, Winterpiece (1813), 365. It has … crisped the travellers locks.
1821. Byron, Sardan., I. ii. 6. There is A cooling breeze which crisps the broad clear river.
1837. T. Hook, Jack Brag, vi. Every curl was crisped into its own peculiar place.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, iii. § 22. 90. The leaf being … rendered liny by bold marking of its ribs and veins, and by turning up and crisping its edges.
2. intr. To curl in short stiff curls.
1583. T. Watson, Centurie of Loue, xx. Although his beard were crisping hard.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. xxxvi. § 12. 247. The leaues … do somewhat curle or crispe.
1777. trans. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 17. Their black hair naturally falls in ringlets, and begins to crisp in some individuals.
1815. Scott, Guy M., iii. The quiet bay, whose little waves, crisping and sparkling to the moonbeams, rolled [etc.].
1852–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 10/1. The shell … exposed to heat … crisping up … like horn.
3. trans. To make crisp, ‘short’ or brittle.
[1658. Willsford, Nature’s Secrets (1665), 52. The ground (in the mornings) will be hoary, like the head of Time, the grasse crisped with the Frost.]
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxviii. The snow … crisped by … a severe frost.
c. 1854. Thackeray, Wolves & Lamb, I. She crisped my buttered toast.
b. transf. and fig. Cf. CRISP a. 5 b, 6.
1833. Arnold, Lett., in Stanley, Life, I. vii. 286. When we live in uncongenial society, we are apt to crisp and harden our outward manner, to save our real feelings from exposure.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., i. 3. The fresh island air crisped by the sea.
4. intr. To become crisp.
1805. A. Scott, Poems, 63 (Jam.). The nights were lang, Wi’ frost the yird was crispin’.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, ix. The air chilled at sunset, the ground crisped.
5. trans. To crush a firm but brittle substance. rare.
1824. Miss Ferrier, Inher., lxviii. Hearing the sound of wheels crisping the gravel as they rolled slowly round.
