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• crepe
  crepe

  noun

  a lightweight fabric of silk, cotton, or other fiber, with a finely crinkled or ridged surface.
• crêpe
  crêpe

  noun

  crepe.

crepe

¹ American  

[krayp] / kreɪp /

Or crape

noun

1. a lightweight fabric of silk, cotton, or other fiber, with a finely crinkled or ridged surface.

2. a usually black band or piece of this material, worn as a token of mourning.

3. a thin, light, delicate pancake.

4. crepe paper.

5. crepe rubber.

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verb (used with object)

creped, creping

1. to cover, clothe, or drape with crepe.

crêpe ² American  

[krayp, krep, krep] / kreɪp, krɛp, krɛp /

noun

• crêpes
  plural

1. crepe.

2. crepe.

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crepe British  

/ kreɪp /

noun

1. 1. a light cotton, silk, or other fabric with a fine ridged or crinkled surface

   2. ( as modifier )

      a crepe dress

2. a black armband originally made of this, worn as a sign of mourning

3. a very thin pancake, often rolled or folded around a filling

4. short for crepe paper crepe rubber

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verb

1. (tr) to cover or drape with crepe

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• crêpes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of crepe¹

1790–1800; < French < Latin crispus curled, wrinkled

Origin of crêpe²

From French; see origin at crepe

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Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crepe crêpe crêpes creped creping

Instead the RHS is considering trees that enjoy hotter and wetter weather, like the American river birch or crepe myrtle, or plants with deeper roots to tolerate drought like yarrow or bird’s foot.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

The King - standing on the left - is wearing a grey suit and blue tie with his right hand tucked into his pocket, while the Queen wears a blue wool crepe dress.

From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2024

They’re kind of a cross between a crepe and a pancake, and they are indescribable.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2024

Boxty may even be grilled thin enough to stand in as a potato crepe wrapped around various fillings.

From Salon ● Mar. 16, 2024

Like magic a crepe forms to be filled with shrimp and eaten with cucumber and bean sprouts.

From "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai

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

I helped Papi string colored lights across the yard, and we decorated an eggplant bush with crêpe paper flowers and cutout figures.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

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

For breakfast, try one of the restaurant's signature juice blends — perhaps the Pick Me Up, made with carrot, apple, orange, lemon, linseed oil and agave — and maybe one of their delectable crêpes.

From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2022

Curators have been remunerated by Joe Bar in the form of a lot of coffee and many, many crêpes, with none of the sales from artworks going to the cafe’s till.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 14, 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

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 Alice Morse Earle

If the slab rubber be creped and air-dried on the spot, the product is of satisfactory appearance, except that it is of low colour and may be streaked.

From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Sidney Morgan

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 Pemberton Ginther

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 Sidney Morgan

Example of this haue you in Terrence of the boasting souldiar, & creping smel feast.

From A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes by Herbert William Hildebrandt

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