Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
crimping house en · NOUN
Meanings
-
(historical) A (usually low-rise) building into which men were decoyed and plied with alcoholic drink to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers.
Under pretense of taking up mendicants and vagabonds, they had scoured the streets at night, seizing upon honest mechanics, or their sons, and hurrying them to their crimping-houses, for the sole purpose of extorting money from them as a ransom.
1820, Washington Irving, The Crayon Papers:
Forms
Relateds
press-gang · impressment