Crimp is a term appliccable to several unrelated fields;

Gambling

In gambling terminology a crimp is a bend that has been intentionally made on the corner(s) of a playing card to facilitate identification.

A card cheat will typically bend some of the important cards during the game. Below are just several of the most popular examples.

In poker, for instance, a cheat may crimp one of the cards to mark off the exact location where he wishes his secret conspirator to cut the deck. Similarly, if the card cheat is not working with a confederate, he may bend one or more cars to force a cut upon an unsuspecting victim. In either case the deck will most likely be cut at the exact predetermined spot in the same way an old book always tends to open at the same page.

Another poker scenario (also popular in numerous other games) is to crimp some of the high-value cards during the early rounds. On subsequent rounds the cheat will be able to identify some of those cards during the deal. This enables the cheat to employ a second deal and deal some of those cards to the desired hand, or simply to identify some of the cards held by other players. In any event, the cheat has a mathematical edge over the other players.

In casino blackjack a crossroader may crimp all the 10-value cards. this will enable the cheat to sometimes identify the dealer's hole card (the dealer has one card face up, called the up card, and one card face down, called the hole card ). In those instances the cheat(s) will know the dealer's total and play their hand(s) accordingly.

Wool classification

In wool classification, crimp is the frequency of bends along the length of a wool fiber. Wools that have 'fine' crimp (many per unit length) usually have small diameters and can be successfully spun into fine yarns (great lengths of yarn for a given weight of wool).

Rock climbing

In rock climbing, crimp describes a small but positive hold. It also describes the process of holding onto such a feature.

Metalworking

In metalworking, crimping is joining two pieces by deforming one or both of them to hold the other. The bend or deformity is called the crimp. It is not generally used of specialised connectors that are designed to be deformed, but only of workpieces. Crimping is commonly used to join bullets to their cartridge cases, and for rapid but lasting electrical connectors. Because it can be a cold-working technique, crimping can also be used to form a strong bond between the workpiece and a non-metallic component. Sometimes, a similar deformity created for reasons other than forming a join may also be called a crimp.

Nautics

In the Nautical Terminology of the Age of Sail, a Crimp was someone employed to find seamen for a ship that was in want of men. Some crimps were honest, some less so - offering sailors drugged rum or simply trapping them in an alleyway and subduing them by force. Often several large, burly men were hired for this purpose, and were known as a Crimp Gang.