a lightweight fabric of silk, cotton, or other fiber, with a finely crinkled or ridged surface.
a usually black band or piece of this material, worn as a token of mourning.
a thin, light, delicate pancake.
a light cotton, silk, or other fabric with a fine ridged or crinkled surface
( as modifier )
a crepe dress
a black armband originally made of this, worn as a sign of mourning
a very thin pancake, often rolled or folded around a filling
short for crepe paper crepe rubber
1790–1800; < French < Latin crispus curled, wrinkled
From French; see origin at crepe
A crepe is a thin, French type of pancake. It's also a word for a type of thin, crinkly paper. Don't confuse your crepes and start chewing on paper. Both types of crepes are thin, though there's only one kind you'd want to eat. The inedible crepe is paper that's very thin and crinkly. Crepe paper is usually colored and is often used in decorations. The other type of crepe is a thin pancake that is filled with many types of food, including meat and fruit. Crepes are even thinner than Swedish pancakes, and they're either sweet or savory. This word shares a linguistic ancestor with English's crisp.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The batter is more liquid than solid, like crepe batter, while apple butter is dense, so resist the urge to get fancy.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025
But in New York I did remodeling, so I’d do things like turn a crepe shop into a hair salon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2025
One example was an elegant, long black crepe wrap dress, which, while stylish, seemed incongruous in the display as a whole.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
The pink crepe blouse has a ruff-like collar and loose pleats to the front and was captured on film by royal photographer Lord Snowdon.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2023
But Mack and the boys had taken the crepe paper, the masks, the broomsticks and paper pumpkins, the red, white, and blue bunting, and moved over the lot and across the street to the laboratory.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
Here, she shares her minimalist approach to restocking a kitchen from scratch, a smart pantry organization solution—and the crêpe recipe that rescued her from a cooking rut.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Also in Bellevue Square, the New York-based Lady M cake boutique has brought its signature mille crêpe cakes to a showy, bright white space.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2023
The ratio of these ingredients is very similar to that of a basic crêpe, but with a totally different execution — and the results couldn't be further apart.
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2023
The restaurant will also offer a daily prix fixe menu that includes a choice of soup or a salad, one savory galette, one dessert crêpe, and a glass of hard cider, soda or juice.
From Fox News ● Aug. 26, 2021
The red crêpe paper hung down in long fringes from the mantel and also was looped around the backs of the chairs.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Through playing around I landed on my recipe for scrunched mochi crêpes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
The best fried chicken I’ve had to date was at Toast, a New Orleans-based brunch spot serving french toast, crêpes and waffles galore.
From Salon ● Apr. 1, 2024
Unlike wheat-and-egg-based crêpes or buckwheat galettes, which hail from northwestern Brittany, socca begins with a base of chickpea flour, water, and olive oil.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2022
Check out his crêpes and pressed sandwiches at LouLou Market and Bar located at Concourse B within Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2022
We’d buy crêpes au fromage from stands on the street and walk along the banks of the Seine.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
The skin that covers them is creped and saggy.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 14, 2015
They creped their campus statue of Thomas Jefferson and inscribed it: "To the Memory of Jeffersonian Democracy and Religious Freedom in Virginia Died November 6, 1928."
From Time Magazine Archive
For this purpose the weighed sample is cut thin or creped thin, and exhaustively extracted with acetone to remove any “free” sulphur—that is, sulphur not in combination with the rubber.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Morgan, Sidney
I had a cousin who was an actor and I saw him put on a beautiful beard with spirit-gum and creped hair once.
From Miss Pat at School by Ginther, Pemberton
His hair in front was well loaded with pomatum, frizzled or creped, and powdered; the ear locks had undergone the same process.
From Customs and Fashions in Old New England by Earle, Alice Morse
Thus, although the putrefaction bases are very easily soluble in water and acetone, they cannot be removed by washing on the creping rollers, or by acetone extraction.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Morgan, Sidney
Example of this haue you in Terrence of the boasting souldiar, & creping smel feast.
From A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes by Hildebrandt, Herbert William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
