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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  

[kreyp] / 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  

[kreyp, 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 a black armband originally made of this, worn as a sign of mourning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

Etymology

Origin of crepe¹

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

Origin of crêpe²

From French; see origin at crepe

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

In Oakland, strikers who had “killed” a locomotive covered it in black crepe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025

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

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

From Salon ● Mar. 16, 2024

“No crepe or black...and some common-sense women to conduct the services.”

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

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

You can make a savory crêpe with egg, cheese and asparagus and you can also make oven-baked buckwheat chips.

From Salon ● May 22, 2024

The elegant, layered crêpe cakes are available whole or by the slice.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 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

In addition to apple orchards and vegetable farmers, shoppers can hit up vendors who specialize in mead, yak meat, empanadas, crêpes, Polish sausage and more.

From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2022

Also, gâteau de crêpes, which is an insanely challenging dish.

From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2022

You can check out its signature mille crêpes — 20 layers of crepes alternating with cream, along with some French-Japanese fusion pastries.

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

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 Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

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

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

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

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

Related Words

• cake
• waffle