What does craping mean?
Craping is the act of covering or decorating something with crape, the thin, crinkled fabric long associated with mourning. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, households marked a death by craping mirrors, pictures, door knockers, and even bells, so that the whole dwelling visibly expressed grief. The practice has faded with the decline of formal mourning dress and ritual, leaving 'craping' today as an archaic or historical term that appears mostly in discussions of Victorian customs, costume history, and period fiction. Separately, 'craping' can serve as the present participle of the vulgar verb 'crap', a crude slang term for defecating; this sense is informal and potentially offensive, though context normally makes the intended meaning unmistakable. When encountered in older texts about funerals, widows' weeds, or draped doorways, craping carries no obscenity at all — it simply describes the solemn work of swathing a home in black.
verb (present participle)The present participle of the verb 'crap': chiefly, covering or adorning something with crape, a thin crinkled fabric; also, vulgar slang for defecating.
- To cover or decorate something with crape, especially as a sign of mourning.
- (Vulgar slang) Present participle of 'crap', meaning to defecate.
"The Victorian mourners were craping the mirrors and doorways in preparation for the funeral."
"By noon the servants had finished craping every mirror in the house."
"Victorian etiquette dictated craping the door knocker for a full year after a death in the family."
Before plastic bunting, mourning houses were literally 'craped' — windows, mirrors, even doorbells swathed in black crape so no joy could leak in.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of craping
As a textile verb, 'craping' derives from 'crape', a variant of French 'crêpe', itself from Latin 'crispus' meaning curled or crinkled — a reference to the fabric's puckered texture. English adopted 'crape' for both the silk gauze used in mourning and the verb meaning to cover with it, with usage flourishing during the Victorian era's elaborate mourning culture. The unrelated vulgar sense comes from the slang verb 'crap', of obscure Middle English origin, which became widespread in American English by the twentieth century.
Related word forms
How craping is actually used
The textile sense is now largely historical, associated with Victorian and earlier mourning customs; the vulgar slang sense is informal to offensive. Context almost always disambiguates.
Easily confused with craping
'Craping' refers to covering with crape fabric, while 'crapping' is the common spelling of the slang term for defecating.
'Creeping' means moving slowly and quietly, whereas 'craping' involves draping fabric.