What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Crimp vs Flounder - What's the difference?

crimp | flounder |

As nouns the difference between crimp and flounder

is that crimp is a fastener or a fastening method that secures parts by bending metal around a joint and squeezing it together, often with a tool that adds indentations to capture the parts or crimp can be an agent making it his business to procure seamen, soldiers, etc, especially by seducing, decoying, entrapping, or impressing them [since the passing of the merchant shipping act of 1854, applied to one who infringes sub-section 1 of this act, ie to a person other than the owner, master, etc, who engages seamen without a license from the board of trade] while flounder is a european species of flatfish having dull brown colouring with reddish-brown blotches; fluke, european flounder, (taxlink).

As verbs the difference between crimp and flounder

is that crimp is to fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened or crimp can be to impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy while flounder is to flop around as a fish out of water.

As a adjective crimp

is (obsolete) easily crumbled; friable; brittle.

crimp

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) crempen, from (etyl) . Germanic etymology. Cognate to Dutch krimpen, via Middle Dutch crimpen, to Low German crimpen, Origins, p. 130, by Eric Partridge and to Faroese . From or cognate to Old Norse kreppa. Possible cognate to cramp.

Adjective

  • (obsolete) Easily crumbled; friable; brittle.
  • * J. Philips
  • Now the fowler treads the crimp earth.
  • (obsolete) Weak; inconsistent; contradictory.
  • * Arbuthnot
  • The evidence is crimp ; the witnesses swear backward and forward, and contradict themselves.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fastener or a fastening method that secures parts by bending metal around a joint and squeezing it together, often with a tool that adds indentations to capture the parts.
  • The strap was held together by a simple metal crimp .
  • (obsolete, UK, dialect) A coal broker.
  • (De Foe)
  • (obsolete) One who decoys or entraps men into the military or naval service.
  • (Marryat)
  • (obsolete) A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.
  • (usually, in the plural) A hairstyle which has been crimped, or shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks.
  • (obsolete) A card game.
  • (Ben Jonson)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened.
  • He crimped the wire in place.
  • To pinch and hold; to seize.
  • To style hair into a crimp.
  • To join the edges of food products. For example: Cornish pasty, pies, jiaozi, Jamaican patty, and sealed crustless sandwiches.
  • Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An agent making it his business to procure seamen, soldiers, etc., especially by seducing, decoying, entrapping, or impressing them. [Since the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, applied to one who infringes sub-section 1 of this Act, i.e. to a person other than the owner, master, etc., who engages seamen without a license from the Board of Trade.]
  • * (rfdate)
  • When a master of a ship..has lost any of his hands, he applies to a crimp ..who makes it his business to seduce the men belonging to some other ship.
  • * (rfdate)
  • Trepanned into the West India Company's service by the crimps or silver-coopers as a common soldier.
  • * (rfdate)
  • Offering three guineas ahead to the crimps for every good able seaman.
  • * (rfdate)
  • I hear there are plenty of good men stowed away by the crimps at different places.
  • * (rfdate)
  • Sallying forth at night..he came near being carried off by a gang of crimps .
  • * (rfdate)
  • In the high and palmy days of the crimp , the pirate, the press-gang.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy.
  • Coaxing and courting with intent to crimp him. — Carlyle.
  • * (rfdate)
  • Plundering corn and crimping recruits.
  • * (rfdate)
  • Clutching at him, to crimp him or impress him.
  • * (rfdate)
  • The cruel folly which crimps a number of ignorant and innocent peasants, dresses them up in uniform..and sends them off to kill and be killed.
  • * (rfdate)
  • The Egyptian Government crimped negroes in the streets of Cairo.
  • * (rfdate)
  • Why not create customers in the Queen's dominions..instead of trying..to crimp them in other countries?

    References

    * *

    flounder

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) floundre, from . Cognate with Danish flynder, German Flunder, Swedish flundra.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A European species of flatfish having dull brown colouring with reddish-brown blotches; fluke, European flounder, .
  • (North America) Any of various flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae or Bothidae.
  • A bootmaker's tool for crimping boot fronts.
  • (rfi, the bootmaker's tool)

    Etymology 2

    Possibly from the noun. Possibly from (founder) or from (etyl) . See other terms beginning with fl , such as (flutter), (flitter), (float), (flap), (flub), (flip)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flop around as a fish out of water.
  • To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance.
  • Robert yanked Connie's leg vigorously, causing her to flounder and eventually fall.
  • To act clumsily or confused; to struggle or be flustered.
  • * Sir W. Hamilton
  • They have floundered on from blunder to blunder.
    He gave a good speech, but floundered when audience members asked questions he could not answer well.
  • * 1996 , , Virago Press, paperback edition, page 136
  • He is assessing directions, but he is not lost, not floundering .
    Usage notes
    Frequently confused with the verb founder. The difference is one of severity; floundering'' (struggling to maintain a position) comes before ''foundering (losing it completely by falling, sinking or failing).