Definition of "gimp"

They sat about in black and shiny and flouncey clothing adorned with gimp and beads, eating great quantities of cake, drinking much tea in a stately manner and reverberating remarks.

1908, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Of Bladesover House, and My Mother; and the Constitution of Society”, in Tono-Bungay […], Toronto, Ont.: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd., 1st book (The Days before Tono-Bungay was Invented), section IV, page 17

I'm a fisher of men and my gimp is doing a saltarello over every body of water to fetch up what it may.

1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 87

Love them and encourage them, but put some 'gimp' into them.

1898, Charles Frederick Wingate, What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living?‎, page 255

You haven't got gimp enough to, any more than you could smash the rest of that pint, instead of swallowing it. You're a weakling...

1915, Frederick Frye Rockwell, The Key to the Land: What a City Man Did with a Small Farm‎, page 72

When people put a lot on what their folks used to do, it always means they haven't got gimp enough left to do anything themselves.

1924, Booth Tarkington, The Midlander‎, page 219

It consists of seventy fine spun cotton threads, gimped or tied around with thread by a machine similar to that for wrapping bonnet wire.

1856, Campbell Morfit, A Treatise on Chemistry Applied to the Manufacture of Soap and Candles, page 435 with illustration

...low strings later than the mid-seventeenth century are commonly gimped (wound with fine wire on a moderate core) to allow sufficient tension without excessive mass or stiffness.

1982, Robert Donington, Music and Its Instruments‎, page 69

They are prettier cut and gimped in the shape of wheels.

1890, Sarah Tyson Heston Rorer, How to Cook Vegetables‎, page 25

This active material consists of a tape of pure lead, which is gimped whilst cold with deep grooves and ridges...

1906, Thomas Ernest Herbert, Telegraphy: A Detailed Exposition of the Telegraph System of the British‎, page 438

Each hole is filled by a rosette of pure lead made by rolling up lead strip or tape which has been gimped or corrugated.

1906, George Dudley Aspinall Parr, Electrical Engineering: In Theory and Practice‎, page 421

In some cases the leather has to be decorated with perforations while its edges may be serrated or gimped.

1978, John Geraint Jenkins, Traditional Country Craftsmen‎, page 232

She walks with a gimp in one leg, which is why she is called Madame La Gimp...

1934, Damon Runyon, Madame La Gimp‎

...Flat-wheel Walter...who is called by this name because he walks with a gimp on one side...

1934, Damon Runyon, What, No Butler?‎