Adjacent Words

Cripple definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CRIPPLE, n. [G.] A lame person; primarily, one who creeps, halts or limps; one who has lost, or never enjoyed the use of his limbs. Acts 14.
The word may signify one who is partially or totally disabled from using his limbs.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing.
CRIPPLE, a. Lame.
CRIPPLE, v.t.
1. To lame; to deprive of the use of the limbs, particularly of the legs and feet.
2. To disable; to deprive of the power of exertion. We say, a fleet was crippled in the engagement.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: someone who is unable to walk normally because of an injury or disability to the legs or back v
1: deprive of strength or efficiency; make useless or worthless; "This measure crippled our efforts"; "Their behavior stultified the boss's hard work" [syn: cripple, stultify]
2: deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg; "The accident has crippled her for life" [syn: cripple, lame]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English cripel, from Old English crypel; akin to Old English cr?opan to creep — more at creep Date: before 12th century 1. a. sometimes offensive a lame or partly disabled person or animal b. one that is disabled or deficient in a specified manner <a social cripple> 2. something flawed or imperfect II. adjective Date: 13th century being lame, flawed, or imperfect III. transitive verb (crippled; crippling) Date: 14th century 1. to deprive of the use of a limb and especially a leg <the accident left him crippled> 2. to deprive of capability for service or of strength, efficiency, or wholeness <an economy crippled by inflation> Synonyms: see maim, weaken • crippler noun • cripplingly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. a person who is permanently lame. --v.tr. 1 make a cripple of; lame. 2 disable, impair. 3 weaken or damage (an institution, enterprise, etc.) seriously (crippled by the loss of funding). Derivatives: crippledom n. cripplehood n. crippler n. Etymology: OE crypel, rel. to CREEP

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cripple Crip"ple, [Local. U. S.] (a) Swampy or low wet ground, often covered with brush or with thickets; bog. The flats or cripple land lying between high- and low-water lines, and over which the waters of the stream ordinarily come and go. --Pennsylvania Law Reports. (b) A rocky shallow in a stream; -- a lumberman's term.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cripple Crip"ple (kr[i^]p"p'l), a. Lame; halting. [R.] ``The cripple, tardy-gaited night.'' --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cripple Crip"ple, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crippled (-p'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Crippling (-pl?ng).] 1. To deprive of the use of a limb, particularly of a leg or foot; to lame. He had crippled the joints of the noble child. --Sir W. Scott. 2. To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. --Palfrey. An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic. --Macaulay.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cripple Crip"ple (kr[i^]p"p'l), n. [OE. cripel, crepel, crupel, AS. crypel (akin to D. kreuple, G. kr["u]ppel, Dan. kr["o]bling, Icel. kryppill), prop., one that can not walk, but must creep, fr. AS. cre['o]pan to creep. See Creep.] One who creeps, halts, or limps; one who has lost, or never had, the use of a limb or limbs; a lame person; hence, one who is partially disabled. I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine. --Dryden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cripples, crippling, crippled) 1. A person with a physical disability or a serious permanent injury is sometimes referred to as a cripple. (OFFENSIVE) She has gone from being a healthy, fit, and sporty young woman to being a cripple. N-COUNT 2. If someone is crippled by an injury, it is so serious that they can never move their body properly again. Mr Easton was seriously crippled in an accident and had to leave his job... He had been warned that another bad fall could cripple him for life... He heaved his crippled leg into an easier position. VERB: be V-ed, V n, V-ed 3. If something cripples a person, it causes them severe psychological or emotional problems. Howard wanted to be a popular singer, but stage fright crippled him... I'm not perfect but I'm also not emotionally crippled or lonely. VERB: V n, V-ed 4. To cripple a machine, organization, or system means to damage it severely or prevent it from working properly. A total cut-off of supplies would cripple the country's economy... The pilot was able to maneuver the crippled aircraft out of the hostile area. VERB: V n, V-ed

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

krip'-'-l (cholos): Only occurs in Ac 14:8, denoting the congenitally lame man at Lystra. In the King James Version (1611) the word is spelled "creeple." It originally meant one whose body is bent together as in the attitude of creeping. This was probably a case of infantile paralysis.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Lame man, lame woman. II. v. a. 1. Lame, make lame. 2. Disable, weaken, impair, break down.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.

Moby Thesaurus

abate, amputee, attenuate, blunt, bugger, burden, castrate, cramp, cumber, damage, damp, dampen, de-energize, deaden, debilitate, defective, deformity, devitalize, disable, disarm, disenable, dismember, drain, dull, emasculate, embarrass, encumber, enervate, enfeeble, enmesh, ensnarl, entangle, entoil, entrammel, entrap, entwine, eviscerate, exhaust, extenuate, fetter, gruel, hamper, hamstring, handicap, handicapped person, hobble, hors de combat, idiot, imbecile, immobilize, impair, impede, inactivate, incapable, incapacitate, involve, kibosh, lame, lay low, lime, lumber, maim, mayhem, mitigate, mutilate, net, paralytic, paraplegic, press down, prostrate, put, quadriplegic, queer, queer the works, rattle, reduce, sabotage, saddle with, sap, shackle, shake, shake up, snarl, soften up, spike, tangle, the crippled, the handicapped, toil, trammel, unbrace, undermine, unfit, unman, unnerve, unstrengthen, unstring, weaken, weigh down, wing, wreck