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a black armband originally made of this, worn as a sign of mourning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
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
The sauce opens the richness of a pho broth or adds a blast of heat to a banh xeo, a Vietnamese crepe.
From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
The parking spaces in front of the place are all taken, but there’s a spot saved with orange construction cones and blue crepe paper.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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
Be sure to stop at the crêpe station for fresh crêpe, fresh-cut fruit and house-whipped cream.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2023
Pho & Chill also does banh mi, the crêpe banh xeo and rice and noodle dishes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2022
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
A hard cheese for grating — a little bit can go a long way, Buckwheat, whether flour for aperitif snacks, sprinkles of it simply toasted, mountain-style pasta or savory brunch crêpes.
From Salon ● May 22, 2024
Also, gâteau de crêpes, which is an insanely challenging dish.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2022
Though Simpson was a fan of savory crêpes he made for Round 2, the egg in a hole was his favorite entry.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 22, 2020
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
Our guide was pleased to introduce us to the late Mr. Charles Pease, as done in paraffin, with creped hair and bright, shiny glass eyes.
From Europe Revised by Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
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 Morgan, Sidney
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.
