[syn: hamper, halter, cramp, strangle]
3. affect with or as if with a cramp;
4. suffer from sudden painful contraction of a muscle;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cramp \Cramp\ (kr[a^]mp), n. [OE. crampe, craumpe; akin to D. &
Sw. kramp, Dan. krampe, G. krampf (whence F. crampe), Icel.
krappr strait, narrow, and to E. crimp, crumple; cf. cram.
See Grape.]
1. That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle;
a hindrance.
[1913 Webster]
A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
--L'Estrange.
[1913 Webster]
Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear.
--Cowper.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Masonry) A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used
to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp
iron.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Carp.) A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used
for compressing the joints of framework, etc.
[1913 Webster]
4. A piece of wood having a curve corresponding to that of
the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather
of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Med.) A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of
a muscle or muscles, as of the leg.
[1913 Webster]
The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.
--Sir T. More.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Med.) A paralysis of certain muscles due to excessive
use; as, writer's cramp; milker's cramp, etc.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a
charm for the cramp. --Halliwell. "He could turn cramp
bones into chess men." --Dickens.
Cramp ring, a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in
averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by
one of the kings of England on Good Friday.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cramp \Cramp\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cramped (kr[a^]mt; 215); p.
pr. & vb. n. Cramping.]
1. To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and
contract; to hinder.
[1913 Webster]
The mind my be as much cramped by too much knowledge
as by ignorance. --Layard.
[1913 Webster]
2. To fasten or hold with, or as with, a cramp.
[1913 Webster]
3. Hence, to bind together; to unite.
[1913 Webster]
The . . . fabric of universal justic is well cramped
and bolted together in all its parts. --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
4. To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.
[1913 Webster]
5. To afflict with cramp.
[1913 Webster]
When the gout cramps my joints. --Ford.
[1913 Webster]
To cramp the wheels of wagon, to turn the front wheels out
of line with the hind wheels, so that one of them shall be
against the body of the wagon.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cramp \Cramp\, a. [See Cramp, n.]
Knotty; difficult. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons
for this opinion. --Coleridge.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
cramp
n 1: a painful and involuntary muscular contraction [syn:
spasm, cramp, muscle spasm]
2: a clamp for holding pieces of wood together while they are
glued
3: a strip of metal with ends bent at right angles; used to hold
masonry together [syn: cramp, cramp iron]
v 1: secure with a cramp; "cramp the wood"
2: prevent the progress or free movement of; "He was hampered in
his efforts by the bad weather"; "the imperialist nation
wanted to strangle the free trade between the two small
countries" [syn: hamper, halter, cramp, strangle]
3: affect with or as if with a cramp
4: suffer from sudden painful contraction of a muscle
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
362 Moby Thesaurus words for "cramp":
Jacksonian epilepsy, Rolandic epilepsy, abate, abbreviate,
abdominal epilepsy, access, ache, aching, acquired epilepsy,
activated epilepsy, acute pain, affect epilepsy, affix,
akinetic epilepsy, anchor, angustifoliate, angustirostrate,
angustisellate, angustiseptal, annex, apoplexy, arrest,
arrestation, arrestment, attach, attack, attenuate,
autonomic epilepsy, belay, beyond one, bite, blockage, blocking,
blow, blunt, bollix, boring pain, bottle up, box, box in, box up,
burden, cabin, cardiac epilepsy, casket, cement, charley horse,
check, cinch, circumscribe, circumscribed, circumscription, clamp,
clinch, clogging, cloister, clonic spasm, clonus, close,
close-fitting, closet, closing up, closure, coarct, coffin,
compact, complex, compress, concentrate, condense, confine,
confined, confinement, consolidate, constipation, constraint,
constrict, constricted, constriction, constringe, contract,
convulsion, cortical epilepsy, crab, crabbed, cramped, cramping,
cramps, crib, crick, crimp, cripple, crowded, cumber,
cursive epilepsy, curtail, cut, damp, dampen, darting pain, deaden,
debilitate, decrease, delay, detainment, detention, devitalize,
difficult, distress, diurnal epilepsy, dolor, draw, draw in,
draw together, dull, eclampsia, embarrass, encase, encumber,
enervate, enfeeble, engraft, enmesh, ensnarl, entangle, entoil,
entomb, entrammel, entrap, entwine, epilepsia, epilepsia gravior,
epilepsia major, epilepsia minor, epilepsia mitior,
epilepsia nutans, epilepsia tarda, epilepsy, epitasis, eviscerate,
exhaust, extenuate, falling sickness, fasten, fetter, fit, fix,
fixation, focal epilepsy, foot-dragging, foul up, frenzy,
fulgurant pain, garbled, girdle pain, gnawing, graft, grand mal,
grapple, grief, grip, griping, gruel, gum, gum up, hamper,
hampering, hamstring, handicap, hard, hard to understand,
haute mal, hem, hem in, hindering, hindrance, hitch, hobble,
holdback, holdup, hurt, hysterical epilepsy, ictus, immure, impede,
impediment, incapacious, incommodious, inhibition, injury,
interference, interruption, intricate, involve, isthmian, isthmic,
jumbled, jumping pain, keep from spreading, keep within bounds,
kink, knit, knotty, lame, lancinating pain, larval epilepsy,
laryngeal epilepsy, laryngospasm, latent epilepsy, lay low, lesion,
let, lime, limit, limitation, limited, localize, lockjaw, louse up,
lumber, make fast, matutinal epilepsy, meager, menstrual epilepsy,
mitigate, moor, musicogenic epilepsy, myoclonous epilepsy, narrow,
nasty blow, near, negativism, net, nip, nocturnal epilepsy,
nuisance value, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, obstruction,
obstructionism, occlusion, opposition, orgasm, overtechnical, pain,
pang, paroxysm, passion, perplexed, petit mal,
physiologic epilepsy, pinch, press down, prick, psychic epilepsy,
psychomotor epilepsy, pucker, pucker up, purse, put to,
qualification, qualify, queer, rattle, reduce, reflex epilepsy,
repression, resistance, restraint, restrict, restricted,
restriction, retardation, retardment, rotatoria, saddle with, sap,
scant, scanty, screw up, secure, seizure, sensory epilepsy,
serial epilepsy, set, set to, setback, sexual climax, shackle,
shake, shake up, sharp pain, shock, shoot, shooting, shooting pain,
shorten, slender, snafu, snarl, soften up, solidify, sore,
sore spot, spasm, squeeze, stab, stabbing pain, stint, stitch,
stoppage, strait, straiten, strangle, stranglehold, strangulate,
stress, stress of life, stricture, stroke, stultification,
suffering, suppression, tangle, tardy epilepsy, tender spot,
tetanus, tetany, thrill, throes, thromboembolism, thrombosis,
tight, tighten, toil, tonic epilepsy, tonic spasm, tormen,
torsion spasm, tough, trammel, traumatic epilepsy, trice up, trim,
trismus, tweak, twinge, twitch, ucinate epilepsy, unbrace,
undermine, unman, unnerve, unstrengthen, unstring, visitation,
weaken, weigh down, wound, wrench, wrinkle