Crippling
(Crip"pling) n. Spars or timbers set up as a support against the side of a building.
Cripply
(Crip"ply) a. Lame; disabled; in a crippled condition. [R.] Mrs. Trollope.
Crisis
(Cri"sis) n.; pl. Crises [L. crisis, Gr. fr. to separate. See Certain.]
1. The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be
modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point.
This hour's the very crisis of your fate.
Dryden.
The very times of crisis for the fate of the country.
Brougham.
2. (Med.) That change in a disease which indicates whether the result is to be recovery or death; sometimes,
also, a striking change of symptoms attended by an outward manifestation, as by an eruption or sweat.
Till some safe crisis authorize their skill.
Dryden.
Crisp
(Crisp) a. [AS. crisp, fr. L. crispus; cf. carpere to pluck, card and E. harvest. Cf. Crape.]
1. Curling in stiff curls or ringlets; as, crisp hair.
2. Curled with the ripple of the water. [Poetic]
You nymphs called Naiads, of the winding brooks . . .
Leave jour crisp channels.
Shak.
3. Brittle; friable; in a condition to break with a short, sharp fracture; as, crisp snow.
The cakes at tea ate short and crisp.
Goldsmith.
4. Possessing a certain degree of firmness and freshness; in a fresh, unwilted condition.
It [laurel] has been plucked nine months, and yet looks as hale and crisp as if it would last ninety years.
Leigh
Hunt.
5. Lively; sparking; effervescing.
Your neat crisp claret.
Beau. & Fl.
6. Brisk; crackling; cheerful; lively.
The snug, small room, and the crisp fire.
Dickens.
Crisp
(Crisp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crisped (kr?spt); p. pr. & vb. n. Crisping.] [L. crispare, fr. crispus.
See Crisp. a. ]
1. To curl; to form into ringlets, as hair, or the nap of cloth; to interweave, as the branches of trees.
2. To cause to undulate irregularly, as crape or water; to wrinkle; to cause to ripple. Cf. Crimp.
The lover with the myrtle sprays
Adorns his crisped tresses.
Drayton.
Along the crisped shades and bowers.
Milton.
The crisped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold.
Milton.
3. To make crisp or brittle, as in cooking.
