crimping house

English

Alternative forms

Noun

crimping house (plural crimping houses)

  1. (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.
    • 1820, Washington Irving, The Crayon Papers:
      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.

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References

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