pimp

noun

1. a person, especially a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute or a brothel, usually in return for a share of the earnings; pander; procurer.
2. a despicable person.
3. Australia and New Zealand. an informer; stool pigeon.

verb (used without object)

4. to act as a pimp.

verb (used with object)

5. to act as a pimp for.
6. to exploit.

noun

1. a man who solicits for a prostitute or brothel and lives off the earnings
2. a man who procures sexual gratification for another; procurer; pander

verb

3. (intr) to act as a pimp
4. (tr) slang to adapt or embellish in an ostentatious manner

noun

1. a spy or informer

verb

2. (intr often foll by on) to inform (on)

n.c.1600, of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle French pimpant “alluring in dress, seductive,” present participle of pimper “to dress elegantly” (16c.), from Old French pimpelorer, pipelorer “decorate, color, beautify.” Weekley suggests Middle French pimpreneau, defined in Cotgrave (1611) as “a knave, rascall, varlet, scoundrell,” but Liberman is against this. Judging by such recorded meanings of pimp as ‘helper in mines; servant in logging camps,’ this word was originally applied to boys and servants. [Liberman] The word also means “informer, stool pigeon” in Australia and New Zealand and in South Africa, where by early 1960s it existed in Swahili form impimpsi. Pimpmobile first recorded 1973 (six years before Popemobile). PIMP. A male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot used about London for lighting fires, named from introducing the fire to the coals. [“Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence,” London, 1811] v.1630s (intransitive) “to act as a pimp,” from pimp (n.). Related: Pimped; pimping.