cripple

Noun · Verb
Synonyms: stultifylame

WordNet 3.0

Noun (1)

  1. someone who is unable to walk normally because of an injury or disability to the legs or back

Verb (2)

  1. deprive of strength or efficiency; make useless or worthless“This measure crippled our efforts”“Their behavior stultified the boss's hard work”Synonyms: stultify
  2. deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg“The accident has crippled her for life”Synonyms: lame
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

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]

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.]
Cripple \Crip"ple\ (kr[i^]p"p'l), a. Lame; halting. [R.] "The cripple, tardy-gaited night." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
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]
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