[syn: cripple, lame]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my
mind, the reader must determine. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cripple \Crip"ple\, (kr[i^]p"p'l), n. [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 1913 Suppl.]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cripple \Crip"ple\ (kr[i^]p"p'l), a.
Lame; halting. [R.] "The cripple, tardy-gaited night."
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
He had crippled the joints of the noble child. --Sir
W. Scott.
[1913 Webster]
2. To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for
service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as,
to be financially crippled.
[1913 Webster]
More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the
energy of the settlement in the Bay. --Palfrey.
[1913 Webster]
An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the
body politic. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
cripple
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]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
101 Moby Thesaurus words for "cripple":
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