Crimp

Crimp, a person who usually keeps a sailors' boarding-house, and who professedly occupies himself in finding employment for seamen. Crimps, or 'runners' as they are often called, and the disreputable persons who are associated with them, live by pandering to the follies and vices of the lower and less provident class of seamen. Their object is to get hold of the sailor and his effects, keep him by means of drink or drugs in their power until his wages are paid; and fleece him of his money, and even of his clothes.