🥞 A thin pancake 👗 A thin fabric 🎉 Crinkled paper 🖤 To cover in mourning

to crepe

1 9.9

To cover something with black cloth as a sign that someone has died

verb
/kreɪp/

Archaic

: vestir de crespón

At the funeral, the family chose to crepe the casket in white cloth as a traditional sign of mourning.

Examples

They crepe the entrance in black drapes to create a somber atmosphere for the memorial gathering.
During the memorial service, we decided to crepe the tables with black fabric to honor our loved one.
I pulled myself up off the floor and set the staple gun and crepe paper down on the table.

Fiction book (1997)
Why crepe paper?

Academic text (1995)
You crepe suzette!

The Undead (1957)
Ah, crepes flambe!

Leonard Part 6 (1987)
With the schmaltzy music, stars and stripes crepe paper decorations and crumbly cookies, it was certainly not something I would have missed my weekly date with my dad and the Dodgers for.

To the New Girl (2020)

Synonyms

to crape

vsto crepe

9.9

To cover something with a soft thin fabric as a sign of mourning

has identical meaning but differs in spelling

to pall

vsto crepe

9.9

To cover a coffin with a heavy dark cloth

is the act of draping mourning fabric generally rather than mainly on coffins

Compounds

crepe paper

4 3.1

A thin, wrinkled colored paper used for making decorations and crafts

crepe Suzette

1 8.1

Thin pancakes come with a warm orange and lemon sauce often set on fire at the table

crepe de Chine

Specialized

1 8.8

A thin lightweight silk fabric with a slightly crinkled surface used for dresses and blouses

Canton crepe

Archaic

9.9

A soft, heavy cloth with a crinkled surface used for dresses

crepe gardenia

Indian

9.9

A tropical shrub with glossy leaves and fragrant white flowers that open at night

crepe jasmine

Indian

9.2

A tropical shrub with glossy leaves and fragrant white, crinkled flowers

crepe marocain

Specialized

9.9

A heavy cloth with a crinkled surface used for women's dresses

crepe rubber

Specialized

5.3

A soft natural rubber with a wrinkled surface used for shoe soles

crepe fern

Australian

9.4

A fern with thin, crinkled leaves that grows in humid, shaded rainforests

crepe flower

8.2

A small tree or shrub with wrinkled bright flowers often planted in warm gardens

Surface Forms

crepe infinitive

creped past

creped past participle

creping present participle

crepes third person singular

Etymology

Crepe as a verb (also seen as crape) comes from the mourning cloth crepe that people used to cover mirrors and pictures after a death. So to crepe something means to cover it with that wrinkled mourning cloth as a sign of grief.