uncrisp

uncrisp

English

Etymology

un- +‎ crisp

Adjective

uncrisp (comparative more uncrisp, superlative most uncrisp)

1. Not crisp.
   1. Not possessing firmness and freshness or brittleness (especially of foods).

      Synonyms: limp, soft

      • 1913, John Muir, The Story of my Boyhood and Youth, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 6, p. 200,

        […] if a second crop was taken from the same ground without fertilizing it, the melons would be small and what we called soapy; that is, soft and smooth, utterly uncrisp, and without a trace of the lively freshness and sweetness of those raised on virgin soil.

   2. Not quick, precise, accurate or well-defined.

      Synonyms: messy, sloppy, blurry

      • 1922, E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, New York: Boni and Liveright, Chapter 12, p. 250,

        […] from time to time a sort of unhealthy almost-light leaked from the large uncrisp corpse of the sky, returning for a moment to our view the ruined landscape.

   3. (dated) Not curling in stiff curls or ringlets (of hair).

      Synonym: straight

      • 1855, Mary Anna Needell, Catherine Irving, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, Volume 1, Chapter 2, pp. 35-36,

        His light brown hair fell, in thin, uncrisp locks, about his white, prominent temples,

Verb

uncrisp (third-person singular simple present uncrisps, present participle uncrisping, simple past and past participle uncrisped)

1. (intransitive) To become less or not crisp.
   • 1978, Doris Schwerin, Leanna, New York: William Morrow, Chapter 1, p. 14,

     [The] metal [of the coach], jouncing on the track, massaged his behind and his pants, uncrisping, were as wet from the mangy dog as from the sweat pouring out between his legs.

2. (transitive, dated) To stop contorting or tensing (a part of one's body); to cause to be no longer contorted or tensed.

   Synonyms: relax, straighten

   • 1858, George Augustus Sala, A Journey Due North, London: Richard Bentley, Chapter 12, p. 189,

     When his miserable life is over they lay him out—that is, they pull his legs, and try to uncrisp his fingers,

   • 1900, Maurice Hewlett, The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay, London: Macmillan, Book 2, Chapter 4, p. 265,

     She also lay white and twisting on a couch, crisping and uncrisping her little hands.

3. (intransitive, dated) To stop being contorted or tensed (of a part of the body).

   Synonym: relax

   • 1919, John Galsworthy, Saint’s Progress, New York: Scribner, Part 3, Chapter 3, p. 252,

     She saw his fingers uncrisp, then grip the shelf again.

4. (transitive, archaic) To stop (something) from rippling or undulating.
   • 1683, Thomas Shipman, “An Hystorick Poem” in Carolina, or, Loyal Poems, London: Samuel Heyrick and William Crook, p. 61,

     Behold your Neptune, with his Trident there,

     Vncrisps the Billows, smoothing them like Glass;