crimping house

noun

A (usually low-rise) building into which men were decoyed and plied with alcoholic drink to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers.

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Meanings

nouncrimping house (plural crimping houses)

plural crimping houses · alternative crimp house · alternative crimping-house

  1. historicalA (usually low-rise) building into which men were decoyed and plied with alcoholic drink to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers.

    Under pretense of taking up mendicants and vagabonds, they had scoured the streets at night, seizing upon honest mechanics, or their sons, and hurrying them to their crimping-houses, for the sole purpose of extorting money from them as a ransom.

    1820, Washington Irving, The Crayon Papers
Cite this entry
APA

crimping house. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crimping%20house

MLA

“crimping house.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crimping%20house. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “crimping house,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crimping%20house.

Source: crimping house on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.