gimped

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of gimp.

   Players complained that the latest patch had gimped the shotgun's range.

   The cord was gimped with fine silver wire before it was sewn onto the jacket.

   Note

   Which verb is at work decides the grammar. The textile verb and the gamer's slang take an object and work in the passive (the cord was gimped with wire; the rifle was gimped in the update), while the colloquial limping verb takes none: he gimped down the stairs on a bad knee.

2. 2
   adjectivecolloquial

   Injured or lamed, or damaged in a way that makes something move or work awkwardly.

   She played the whole second half on a gimped ankle.

   The old van crawled home on a gimped rear wheel, squealing at every turn.

   Similarbum, bad, injured, lame, gammy

   Oppositehealthy, sound

   Note

   Applied to people, the word carries the sting of the noun gimp, an offensive name for someone who is lame, so said of a disabled person it insults rather than describes. It is safer for a passing injury or for machinery: Scott Oglesby's Riding High has a rickety-wheeled chair squealing “like a gimped grocery cart”.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of fabric, curtains or clothing, decorated with gimp, a decorative trim, or else edged or embroidered.

   The theater's gimped velvet curtains had faded after decades of sunlight.

   Each cushion had a gimped border worked in gold thread.

   Similartrimmed

   Note

   Upholsterers and dressmakers finish their work with gimp, a narrow braid or cord glued or stitched along seams and edges. On a chair it often runs where the fabric meets the wooden frame, hiding the tacks or staples beneath. Keep it apart from the wound-yarn sense: gimped yarn describes how a thread is made, a gimped cushion how it is trimmed.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of yarn, cord or wire, wound tightly with a second strand in a spiral, often by machine, so the core stays straight and protected; more generally, wrapped or twisted with string or wire.

   Gimped yarn hides its straight core under a tight spiral of finer thread.

   The upholsterer ordered a spool of gimped cord in dark green.

5. 5
   adjective

   Having a jagged or uneven edge or outline, notched with serrations or grooves, or nicked and dented.

   Under the magnifying glass, the margin of each leaf looked finely gimped.

   The rim of the pewter plate was gimped and dented from years of rough handling.

   Similarserrated, notched, jagged

   Oppositesmooth, even

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquial

   Edited or altered with the GIMP image editor.

   Our volunteer refuses to pay for Photoshop, so the newsletter is full of slightly gimped photos with oversaturated skies.

   Every logo he had gimped in the free GIMP editor still showed its checkered background.

   Note

   The adjective is built on GIMP, the name of a free image-editing program, so it belongs to design forums and photo captions. Out of that setting it collides with the "injured" meaning: a gimped logo is clear among editors, but anywhere else, naming the program (edited in GIMP) avoids the misreading.

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