• IPA: /kɹɪsp/

crisp (comparative crisper, superlative crispest)

1. (of something seen or heard) Sharp, clearly defined.

   This new television set has a very crisp image.

2. Brittle; friable; in a condition to break with a short, sharp fracture.

   The crisp snow crunched underfoot.

   • The cakes at tea ate short and crisp.

3. Possessing a certain degree of firmness and freshness.

   • It [laurel] has been plucked nine months, and yet looks as hale and crisp as if it would last ninety years.

4. (of weather, air etc.) Dry and cold.
5. (of movement, action etc.) Quick and accurate.
6. (of talk, text, etc.) Brief and to the point.

   An expert, given a certain query, will often come up with a crisp answer: “yes” or “no”.

   • 1999, John Hampton, ‎Lisa Emerson, Writing Guidelines for Postgraduate Science Students (page 130)

     Another way of writing the last example is 'She brought along her favourite food which is chocolate cake' but this is less concise: colons can give your writing lean, crisp style.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855 ↗:

     It was plain that the loss of Phyllis Mills, goofy though she unquestionably was, had hit him a shrewd wallop, and I presumed that he was coming to me for sympathy and heart balm, which I would have been only too pleased to dish out. I hoped, of course, that he would make it crisp and remove himself at an early date, for when the moment came for the balloon to go up I didn't want to be hampered by an audience. When you're pushing someone into a lake, nothing embarrasses you more than having the front seats filled up with goggling spectators.

7. (of wine) having a refreshing amount of acidity; having less acidity than green wine, but more than a flabby one.
8. (obsolete) Lively; sparking; effervescing.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher, “The Bloody Brother”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, OCLC 3083972 ↗, Act 4, scene 2:

     your neat crisp claret

9. (dated) Curling in stiff curls or ringlets.

   crisp hair

10. (obsolete) Curled by the ripple of water.
    • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

      You nymphs called Naiads, of the winding brooks […] Leave your crisp channels.

11. (comptheory) Not using fuzzy logic; based on a binary distinction between true and false.

• crispate
• crispated
• crispation

• French: net
• Russian: я́сный

• German: spröde
• Russian: хру́пкий

• French: croustillant, croquant
• German: knackig, knusprig
• Russian: све́жий
• Spanish: crujiente

• Russian: лакони́чный
• Spanish: preciso

• Portuguese: borbulhante, efervescente
• Spanish: burbujeante, efervescente

• Italian: croccante
• Russian: кудря́вый

crisp (plural crisps)

1. (British) A thin slice of fried potato eaten as a snack.
2. A baked dessert made with fruit and crumb topping

   Synonyms: crumble, crunch

3. (food) Anything baked or fried and eaten as a snack

   kale crisps

• (US) potato chip, potato crisp.

crisp (crisps, present participle crisping; past and past participle crisped)

1. (transitive) To make crisp.

   to crisp bacon by frying it

2. (intransitive) To become crisp.
3. (transitive, dated) To curl; to form into ringlets, for example hair, or the nap of cloth
4. (transitive, dated) to interweave, like the branches of trees.
5. (intransitive, archaic) To undulate or ripple.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Lotos-Eaters

     to watch the crisping ripples on the beach

6. (transitive, archaic) To cause to undulate irregularly, as crape or water; to wrinkle; to cause to ripple.

   • The lover with the myrtle sprays / Adorns his crisped tresses.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     The crisped brooks, / Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold.

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