crimp

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To press or pinch into small regular folds or ridges.
• transitive verb To bend or mold (leather) into shape.
• transitive verb To cause (hair) to form tight curls or waves.
• transitive verb To have a hampering or obstructive effect on.
• noun The act of crimping.
• noun Something made by or as if by crimping, as.
• noun Hair that has been tightly curled or waved.
• noun A series of curls, as of wool fibers.
• noun A crease or bend.
• noun An obstructing or hampering agent or force.
• noun A person who tricks or coerces others into service as sailors or soldiers.
• transitive verb To procure (sailors or soldiers) by trickery or coercion.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To bend back or inward; draw together; contract or cause to contract or shrink; corrugate. Specifically
• To bend (the uppers of boots) into shape.
• To indent (a cartridge-case), or turn the end inward and back upon the head, in order to confine the charge; crease.
• To cause to contract and pucker so as to become wrinkled, wavy, or crisped, as the hair; form into short curls or ruffles; flute; ruffle.
• In cookery, to crimple or cause to contract or wrinkle, as the flesh of a live fish or of one just killed, by gashing it with a knife, to give it greater firmness and make it more crisp when cooked.
• To pinch and hold; seize.
• To kidnap; decoy for the purpose of shipping or enlisting, as into the army or navy. See the extract.
• To be very stingy.
• noun That which has been crimped or curled; a curl or a waved lock of hair: generally used in the plural.
• noun A crimper.
• noun One who brings persons into a place or condition of restraint, in order to subject them to swindling, forced labor, or the like; especially, one who, for a commission, supplies recruits for the army or sailors for ships by nefarious means or false inducements; a decoy; a kidnapper. Such practices have been suppressed in the army and navy, and made highly penal in connection with merchant ships.
• noun A certain game at cards.
• Easily crumbled; friable; brittle; crisp.
• Not consistent; contradictory.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective rare Easily crumbled; friable; brittle.
• adjective rare Weak; inconsistent; contradictory.
• transitive verb To fold or plait in regular undulation in such a way that the material will retain the shape intended; to give a wavy appearance to. Cf. crisp.
• transitive verb To pinch and hold; to seize.
• transitive verb to entrap into the military or naval service.
• transitive verb (Cookery) To cause to contract, or to render more crisp, as the flesh of a fish, by gashing it, when living, with a knife
• transitive verb (Firearms) In cartridge making, to fold the edge of (a cartridge case) inward so as to close the mouth partly and confine the charge.
• transitive verb a low lodging house, into which men are decoyed and plied with drink, to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers.
• transitive verb A crimping machine.
• transitive verb a machine with fluted rollers or with dies, for crimping ruffles, leather, iron, etc.
• transitive verb an instrument for crimping or puckering the border of a lady's cap.
• noun Prov. Eng. A coal broker.
• noun One who decoys or entraps men into the military or naval service.
• noun A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.
• noun Hair which has been crimped; -- usually in pl.
• noun obsolete A game at cards.
• noun See under Boot.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy.
• adjective obsolete Easily crumbled; friable; brittle.
• adjective obsolete Weak; inconsistent; contradictory.
• noun A fastener or a fastening method that secures parts by bending metal around a joint and squeezing it together, often with a tool that adds indentations to capture the parts.
• noun obsolete, UK, dialect A coal broker.
• noun obsolete One who decoys or entraps men into the military or naval service.
• noun obsolete A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.