a thin slice of potato fried until crunchy and eaten cold as a snack
She opened a packet of salt-and-vinegar crisps during the picnic.
The shop sells freshly made crisps in dozens of flavors.
✦ Specific food sense first recorded in Britain in the 1920s, extending the adjective meaning “brittle.”
firm, dry, and pleasantly fresh, often making a sharp sound or having a clean, clear feel or appearance
He bit into a crisp apple that snapped loudly.
Freshly ironed shirts looked and felt crisp on the hotel bed.
✦ From Old English ‘crisp’ meaning “curly,” later “brittle,” from Latin ‘crispus’ “curled, wrinkled.”
to make or become dry, firm, and crunchy
Heat will crisp the bacon in just a few minutes.
The leaves crisp and turn brown when the weather is too dry.
✦ Verb use evolved from the adjective in the late 17th century, meaning “to cause to become brittle.”
pleasantly firm, dry, and slightly crunchy in texture, especially after being cooked or baked
The chicken skin turned perfectly crispy in the oven.
She loves biting into a crispy apple on her way to school.
✦ formed from the adjective “crisp” + the suffix “-y,” first recorded in English in the late 14th century to describe something brittle or curly, and later applied mainly to food textures
