crisp
[krisp]
- (especially of food) hard but easily breakable; brittle: crisp toast.
- (especially of food) firm and fresh; not soft or wilted: a crisp leaf of lettuce.
- brisk; sharp; clear; decided: a crisp reply.
- lively; pithy; sparkling: crisp repartee.
- clean-cut, neat, and well-pressed; well-groomed.
- bracing; invigorating: crisp air.
- crinkled, wrinkled, or rippled, as skin or water.
- in small, stiff, or firm curls; curly.
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- to make or become crisp.
- to curl.
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- Chiefly British. potato chip.
- a dessert of fruit, as apples or apricots, baked with a crunchy mixture, usually of bread crumbs, chopped nutmeats, butter, and brown sugar.
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Origin of crisp
before 900; Middle English, Old English < Latin crispus curled
Synonyms
See more synonyms for crisp on Thesaurus.com6. brisk, fresh, nippy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for crisp
Contemporary Examples
Exactly one month after the first straw goat was erected in Gävle, it was mysteriously burned to a crisp.
Note: If you prefer cookies thin and crisp, bake them straight from the mixing bowl.
If you prefer them chewy in the middle and crisp outside, chill the balls of dough.
De la Renta did design some stuff for Kennedy too—notably, one perfect belted sheath in crisp white linen.
The summer heat is fleeting, and the crisp golden brown of autumn lingers just a little bit longer than it should.
Jason Schwartzman Is the Nicest Jerk You’ll Ever Meet in ‘Listen Up Philip’Emma Myers
October 17, 2014
Historical Examples
He started to get up, but the marshal's crisp voice cut in on him.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
Fill your salad bowl with the crisp leaves, from which the flowerhead has been plucked.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
"It hasn't been convenient to do it before," was the crisp answer.
DustMr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
Marny spoke in crisp, detached sentences between the pats of his brush.
The UnderdogF. Hopkinson Smith
If you baste it with any thing else, or with its own dripping, the skin will not be crisp.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
crisp
- dry and brittle
- fresh and firmcrisp lettuce
- invigorating or bracinga crisp breeze
- clear; sharpcrisp reasoning
- lively or stimulatingcrisp conversation
- clean and orderly; neata crisp appearance
- concise and pithy; tersea crisp reply
- wrinkled or curlycrisp hair
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- to make or become crisp
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- British a very thin slice of potato fried and eaten cold as a snack
- something that is crisp
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Word Origin
Old English, from Latin crispus curled, uneven, wrinkled
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for crisp
adj.
Old English crisp "curly," from Latin crispus "curled, wrinkled, having curly hair," from PIE root *(s)ker- "to turn, bend." It began to mean "brittle" 1520s, for obscure reasons, perhaps based on what happens to flat things when they are cooked. Figurative sense of "neat, brisk" is from 1814; perhaps a separate word. As a noun, from late 14c. Potato crisps (the British version of U.S. potato chips) is from 1929.
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v.
late 14c., "to curl," from crisp (adj.). Meaning "to become brittle" is from 1805. Related: Crisped; crisping.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with crisp
crisp
see burn to a cinder (crisp).
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.