different between squeeze vs crimp

English

Etymology

From earlier squize, squise (whence also dialectal English squizzen and squeege), first attested around 1600, probably an alteration of quease (which is attested since 1550), from Middle English queisen (“to squeeze”), from Old English cw?san, cw?san (“to crush, squeeze”), of unknown origin, perhaps imitative (compare Swedish qväsa, kväsa (“to squeeze, bruise, crush; quell”), Dutch kwetsen (“to injure, hurt”), German quetschen (“to squeeze”)). Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to press, squeeze”). The slang expression "to put the squeeze on (someone or something)", meaning "to exert influence", is from 1711. The baseball term "squeeze play" is first recorded 1905. "Main squeeze" ("most important person") is attested from 1896, the specific meaning "one's sweetheart, lover" is attested by 1980.

The nonstandard strong forms squoze and squozen, attested dialectally since at least the mid-19th century, are by analogy with freeze.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwi?z/
• Rhymes: -i?z

Verb

squeeze (third-person singular simple present squeezes, present participle squeezing, simple past squeezed or (nonstandard) squoze, past participle squeezed or (nonstandard) squozen)

1. (transitive) To apply pressure to from two or more sides at once.

   I squeezed the ball between my hands.

   Please don't squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1:

     "Over there—by the rock," Steele muttered, with his brush between his teeth, squeezing out raw sienna, and keeping his eyes fixed on Betty Flanders's back.

2. (transitive) To embrace closely; to give a tight hug to.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To fit into a tight place.

   I managed to squeeze the car into that parking space.

   Can you squeeze through that gap?

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method adopted by schoolboys, when the journey- money provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted to other and better ends.

4. (transitive) To remove something with difficulty, or apparent difficulty.

   He squeezed some money out of his wallet.

5. (transitive) To put in a difficult position by presenting two or more choices.

   I'm being squeezed between my job and my volunteer work.

   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, "British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

     At a time when Mr. Cameron is being squeezed from both sides — from the right by members of his own party and by the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, and from the left by his Liberal Democrat coalition partners — the move seemed uncharacteristically clunky.

6. (transitive, figuratively) To oppress with hardships, burdens, or taxes; to harass.
7. (transitive, baseball) To attempt to score a runner from third by bunting.

   Jones squeezed in Smith with a perfect bunt.

Synonyms

• (to apply pressure to from two or more sides at once): compress, condense; see also Thesaurus:compress

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

squeeze (plural squeezes)

1. A close or tight fit.
2. (figuratively) A difficult position.

3. A hug or other affectionate grasp.

4. (slang) A romantic partner.
   • 1988, James Ellroy, Dudley Smith Trio: The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz, Random House (?ISBN), page 459:

     He spent nights cruising queer bars near the pad, saw Wiltsie at the dives, but always in the company of his squeeze, a guy he called 'Duane.'

   • 2012, J. Lamar, Tip Tap Toe, Xlibris Corporation (?ISBN), page 141:

     His young squeeze had just backed out and had not seen the assault on her “ sugar daddy” when it happened!

   • 2014, N. Lombardi Jr., Journey Towards a Falling Sun, John Hunt Publishing (?ISBN)

     But even considering that, he might have been a bit more restrained if he hadn't run into his former sexy squeeze, Penny Atieno.

5. (slang) An illicit alcoholic drink made by squeezing Sterno through cheesecloth, etc., and mixing the result with fruit juice.
6. (baseball) The act of bunting in an attempt to score a runner from third.

7. (card games) A play that forces an opponent to discard a card that gives up one or more tricks.
8. (caving) A traversal of a narrow passage.
9. A moulding, cast or other impression of an object, chiefly a design, inscription etc., especially by pressing wet paper onto the surface and peeling off when dry.
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 65:

     Nollekens, finding his wife always benefited by these visits, never refused White a squeeze of a patera, or any thing that would answer his purpose; […] White […] had turned his wine-cellars into manufactories for the produce of cast coins, and moderns squeezes from Roman lamps.

10. (mining) The gradual closing of workings by the weight of the overlying strata.
11. (dated) The situation experienced by a middleman when pressured from both sides, especially financially.
12. (dated) A bribe, fee, or extortionary price paid to a middleman, especially in China; the practice of requiring such a bribe or fee.

Translations

See also

• squash
• squeegee
• squish
• margin squeeze

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Etymology 1

From Middle English crimpen (“to be contracted, be drawn together”), from Middle Dutch crimpen, crempen (“to crimp”), from Proto-Germanic *krimpan? (“to shrink, draw back”) (compare related Old English ?ecrympan (“to curl”)). Cognate with Dutch krimpen, German Low German krimpen, Faroese kreppa (“crisis”), and Icelandic kreppa (“to bend tightly, clench”). Compare also derivative Middle English crymplen (“to wrinkle”) and causative crempen (“to turn something back, restrain”, literally “to cause to shrink or draw back”), both ultimately derived from the same root. See also cramp.

Adjective

crimp

1. (obsolete) Easily crumbled; friable; brittle.
2. (obsolete) Weak; inconsistent; contradictory.

Noun

crimp (plural crimps)

1. 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.

2. The natural curliness of wool fibres.
3. (usually in the plural) Hair that is shaped so it bends back and forth in many short kinks.
4. (obsolete) A card game.

Translations

Verb

crimp (third-person singular simple present crimps, present participle crimping, simple past and past participle crimped)

1. To press into small ridges or folds, to pleat, to corrugate.
   • 1983, The Pacific Reporter (page 636)

     Casino employees and Gaming Control Board agents placed the table under observation. The deck in play was exchanged for a new deck, and the used deck was found to contain many crimped cards.

2. (electricity) To fasten by bending metal so that it squeezes around the parts to be fastened.

   He crimped the wire in place.

3. To pinch and hold; to seize.
4. To style hair into a crimp, to form hair into tight curls, to make it kinky.
5. To bend or mold leather into shape.
6. To gash the flesh, e.g. of a raw fish, to make it crisper when cooked.

Derived terms

• crimper
• crimping tool

Translations

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Likely from etymology 1, above, but the historical development is not clear. Attested since the seventeenth century.

Noun

crimp (plural crimps)

1. An agent who procures seamen, soldier, etc., especially by decoying, entrapping, impressing, or seducing them.
2. (specifically, law) One who infringes sub-section 1 of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, applied to a person other than the owner, master, etc., who engages seamen without a license from the Board of Trade.
3. (obsolete) A keeper of a low lodging house where sailors and emigrants are entrapped and fleeced.

Verb

crimp (third-person singular simple present crimps, present participle crimping, simple past and past participle crimped)

1. (transitive) To impress (seamen or soldiers); to entrap, to decoy.

References

• crimp in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “crimp”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• crimp at OneLook Dictionary Search