pimp
[pimp]
- a person, especially a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute or a brothel, usually in return for a share of the earnings; pander; procurer.
- a despicable person.
- Australia and New Zealand. an informer; stool pigeon.
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- to act as a pimp.
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- to act as a pimp for.
- to exploit.
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Origin of pimp
First recorded in 1630–40; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pimp
Contemporary Examples
Amirpour sees the pimp as a liberator rather than a predator.
Clarence ends up killing the pimp, and instead of taking her clothes, walks away with a briefcase full of cocaine.
Most Overlooked Romance Films for Valentine’s Day Weekend: ‘True Romance,’ ‘His Girl Friday,’ MoreMarlow Stern
February 15, 2014
Would it have been better if I had a song that said, ‘I am a gangster’ or ‘I am a pimp’?
New trailer drops for Fading Gigalo in which John Turturro is a male hooker and Woody Allen is his pimp.
Said pimp and Nick Cannon have a Zoolander style “walk-off” to prove who is sexiest.
Historical Examples
Such a monstrous Pandarus would have been blackballed at the Pimp.
Sir, I have the honour to tell you that you are a pimp, lately escaped from the Fleet.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891Hall Caine
Envy must own, I live among the great, No pimp of pleasure, and no spy of state.
Essay on ManAlexander Pope
If I am not good enough for a lover perhaps I may do for a pimp.
Love and IntrigueFriedrich Schiller
A pander, a pimp, a professional reviler of great and good men.
QuodlibetJohn P. Kennedy
pimp1
- a man who solicits for a prostitute or brothel and lives off the earnings
- a man who procures sexual gratification for another; procurer; pander
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- (intr) to act as a pimp
- (tr) slang to adapt or embellish in an ostentatious manner
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Word Origin
C17: of unknown origin
pimp2
- a spy or informer
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- (intr often foll by on) to inform (on)
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Word Origin
of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for pimp
n.
c.1600, of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle French pimpant "alluring in dress, seductive," present participle of pimper "to dress elegantly" (16c.), from Old French pimpelorer, pipelorer "decorate, color, beautify." Weekley suggests Middle French pimpreneau, defined in Cotgrave (1611) as "a knave, rascall, varlet, scoundrell," but Liberman is against this.
Judging by such recorded meanings of pimp as 'helper in mines; servant in logging camps,' this word was originally applied to boys and servants. [Liberman]
The word also means "informer, stool pigeon" in Australia and New Zealand and in South Africa, where by early 1960s it existed in Swahili form impimpsi. Pimpmobile first recorded 1973 (six years before Popemobile).
PIMP. A male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot used about London for lighting fires, named from introducing the fire to the coals. ["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
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v.
1630s (intransitive) "to act as a pimp," from pimp (n.). Related: Pimped; pimping.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper