crisp

From Middle English crisp (“curly”), from Old English crisp (“curly”), from Latin crispus (“curly”). Doublet of crêpe.

• IPA^(key): /kɹɪsp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪsp

crisp (comparative crisper, superlative crispest)

1. (of something seen or heard) Sharp, clearly defined.

   This new television set has a very crisp image.

2. Brittle; friable; in a condition to break with a short, sharp fracture.

   The crisp snow crunched underfoot.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Goldsmith

     The cakes at tea ate short and crisp.

3. Possessing a certain degree of firmness and freshness.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Leigh Hunt

     It [laurel] has been plucked nine months, and yet looks as hale and crisp as if it would last ninety years.

4. (of weather, air etc.) Dry and cold.
5. (of movement, action etc.) Quick and accurate.
   • 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC‎:

     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.

6. (of talk, text, etc.) Brief and to the point.

   An expert, given a certain query, will often come up with a crisp answer: “yes” or “no”.

   • 1999, John Hampton, ‎Lisa Emerson, Writing Guidelines for Postgraduate Science Students (page 130)

     Another way of writing the last example is 'She brought along her favourite food which is chocolate cake' but this is less concise: colons can give your writing lean, crisp style.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     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.

7. (of wine) having a refreshing amount of acidity; having less acidity than green wine, but more than a flabby one.
8. (obsolete) Lively; sparking; effervescing.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Beaumont and Fletcher

     your neat crisp claret

9. (dated) Curling in stiff curls or ringlets.

   crisp hair

10. (obsolete) Curled by the ripple of water.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

      You nymphs called Naiads, of the winding brooks […] Leave your crisp channels.

11. (computing theory) Not using fuzzy logic; based on a binary distinction between true and false.

• crisply
• crispness
• crispy

• crispate
• crispated
• crispation

crisp (plural crisps)

1. (Britain) A thin slice of fried potato eaten as a snack.
   • 2016, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons & Rob Gibbons, Alan Partridge: Nomad, page 44:

     As I sit in front of the TV angrily eating crisps, it comes to me. I will challenge her to a race.

2. A baked dessert made with fruit and crumb topping
3. (food) Anything baked or fried and eaten as a snack

   kale crisps

• (US): potato chip, potato crisp.

crisp (third-person singular simple present crisps, present participle crisping, simple past and past participle crisped)

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, for example hair, or the nap of cloth
4. (transitive, dated) to interweave, like the branches of trees.
5. (intransitive, archaic) To undulate or ripple.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Tennyson

     to watch the crisping ripples on the beach

6. (transitive, archaic) To cause to undulate irregularly, as crape or water; to wrinkle; to cause to ripple.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Drayton

     The lover with the myrtle sprays / Adorns his crisped tresses.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     The crisped brooks, / Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold.

• Crips, crips, scrip