Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CRISP, v.t. [L. crispo; It. crespare; Sp. crespar; Fr. crêper; Dan. kruser; Sw. krusa; W. cris, a crust; crisb, a crisp coating; crisbin, crisp, friable; from rhis, broken into points, mince; allied to cresu, crasu, to roast or parch. From the Gothic dialects, we observe that p is not radical. Class Rd, No. 20, 73, Ar.]

1. To curl; to twist; to contract or form into ringlets, as the hair; to wreathe or interweave, as the branches of trees. – B. Jonson. Milton.
2. To indent. – Johnson.
3. To twist or eddy. – Mason. But the sense is, to curl; to wrinkle in little undulations, as, a fretted surface. From that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, / Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, / Ran nectar, visiting each plant. – Milton.