Pulp Fiction came out in 1994, and suddenly things come clear to me. I never grew up with anyone saying “gimp” in the other sense, and I watched PF in college, so from the beginning my mind was set that gimp meant the sex object. I didn’t hear about the other meaning until almost ten years later.
I only see/hear ‘Gimp’ in MMORPG gaming referring to a character build that is flawed or built non-optimally. The leg meaning I knew; the leather-face fetish term I wasn’t.
I’m temporarily disabled in a way that causes me to have constant pain (varying levels) in my hips, back, legs and feet. I often lightly tell my kids “You guys go on out and start getting in the van; I’ll be gimping out shortly”.
The only other meanings I was at all familiar with were the photo editing program and the plastic string kids play with at day camp.
To me it’s “Both”
When I think of the software, I always say “The GIMP” never lowercase.
I had known of the “crippled” meaning of “gimp” long before I saw Pulp Fiction, which I believe was the first popular use of the “sex slave” meaning. While watching the movie, I was expecting the Gimp to have a gimpy leg.
In tabletop gaming, I’ve most often heard it used when a character gets hit by a perticuarly bad status effect. Paralized, stunned, turned to stone, slowed, etc. “Dammit! Well, that’s part of playing a fighter. You end up spending half the big fights gimped.”
More recently, it means a bad character design decision, or an option in character design that’s clearly sup-par. “A mace? Maces are gimped in 4e.”
Outside of books, I don’t think I’ve EVER heard the ‘bad leg’ version. That one may be regional, but it always sounds badly dated to me.
As for the be-suited, ah, entertainment console version, I’ve never heard that one used either, in a non-fictional setting. Or as a joke, but never by anyone involved in that sort of thing.
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Though I did think Gimp Girl, from Ghastly’s Comic’s, communicating solely through AOL emoticons was a pretty clever gag.
Another one for the photo editing software first and then someone with a sore or injured leg.
Never saw Pulp Fiction so I never heard of the sex slave version before now.
Never heard of the sex slave definition before. I popped in thinking the second choice would be those thin strips of plastic used for braiding lanyards.
I was afraid I’d read the entire thread and not see this mentioned. Thanks. 
To elaborate further, it’s also used to (sometimes) describe a person in an MMORPG (particularly one with PvP) as playing poorly (ie: “You’re such a gimp”).
When I saw “the gimp” in Pulp Fiction, I figured he was called that because he had a limp… And that calling him “the gimp” instead of “the guy we’ve got enslaved in a full body leather suit and chained up and locked in a chest” was just another bit of ironic humor.
I had no idea until this thread that that was a standard meaning of “gimp”.
See, I agree with that wholeheartedly and am not sure you are in any way wrong.
If it is a standard meaning now, I suspect it has only become so recently and derives entirely from the movie. Which, of course, is how language evolves :). But the “sex slave” definition hasn’t made into Webster yet, far as I know.
Anyone care to parse the etymology “geek”?
I had a three way tie. 
Growing up, I knew ‘gimp’ to mean you had any bad limb. For example, I have a broken finger that hasn’t healed correctly, so I have a gimp hand. (but we used to call it ‘gimpy’.)
During adolescence, hanging out in porn stores (long story), I came to know gimp as a bondage aspect - mask, suit and all. Weird but okay. If you were paying that kind of money for a full-body leather suit (over $300 back in the day), then go for it. Either you’re a rich freak or you’re a rich freak who knows somebody who will wear this for you while y’all do what you do.
Once *Pulp Fiction *came out, I think that’s when it became my standard other definition. But I still come to deflicted body part first.
Is ‘geek’ a literal spelling jock-strapping of ‘greek’. Are greek (society members) smarter than jocks or any other member of the student body? Could this be how the practice of jocks strapping straps of jocks unto greek geeks?
Okay, maybe that’s too much…
So I’m still unclear if Pulp Fiction made up the “gimp = sex slave” definition or if it arose somewhat lamely (ha!) from the movie.
Also the graphic editing program, aka, “free Photoshop.”
I wasn’t sure what “both” was going to mean, but when I read the options, I was familiar with that. So count me in with all the others that know it from Pulp Fiction but aren’t really sure if the two were related before (or after) that.
I did not learn of the “sex slave” meaning until I saw Pulp Fiction. I knew it as “person with physical disability” (not the disability itself) years before that. I strongly suspect that the former meaning derives from the latter. Is there any evidence that the “sex slave” meaning was widespread before Pulp Fiction appeared? (After all, most people are likely to encounter people with disabilities far more often than they encounter sex slaves. Indeed, I have never knowingly encountered a sex slave in real life.)
I know of gimp as disablement, plastic lanyard string and the pulp fiction guy. In that order of knowing the term. Only one would I ever have reason to use and that is the plastic string.
There’s another usage of “gimp” that I’m surprised has not already been mentioned.
In the Super Smash Brothers series of video games, the objective is to knock your opponent off of the screen. As characters rack up more damage, they get sent farther and farther away when hit by attacks. As such, the usual method of scoring a KO is to rack up a lot of damage through combos and then finish with one powerful move.
In this context, a “gimp” refers to a KO at a very low percentage, often accomplished with a few moves that either hit the opponent straight downwards (“spike”) or push them back just far enough that they can’t recover.
The last two kills of this video show Mew2King (playing Marth) gimping PC Chris (playing Fox). Notice that the highest-rated comment is currently “M2K the master of gimps.”
I didn’t vote, because of the two definitions I know of for gimp, only one was in the poll…the disability one (Most often used when the affected limb is a leg). The other one, being a person who has spent way too much time sewing and crafting and absolutely NONE watching Pulp Fiction is decorative braid or trim used mostly in home decor applications, or cording/lacing used in camp crafts.