cripple
/ˈkɹɪp(ə)l/ adjective, noun, verb
Forms cripples crippling crippled creeple
- adjective (now rare, dated) Crippled.
- noun (offensive) A person who has severely impaired physical abilities because of deformation, injury, or amputation of parts of the body. “He returned from war a cripple.”
- noun (by extension, figurative) A person who is severely impaired or deficient in some non-physical way.
- noun A shortened wooden stud or brace used to construct the portion of a wall above a door or above and below a window.
- noun (uncountable, dialect, Southern US except Louisiana) Scrapple.
- noun (among lumbermen) A rocky shallow in a stream.
- verb To make someone a cripple; to cause someone to become physically impaired. “The car bomb crippled five passers-by.”
- verb (figuratively) To damage seriously; to destroy. “My ambitions were crippled by a lack of money.”
- verb (figuratively) To cause severe and disabling damage; to make unable to function normally.
- verb To release a product (especially a computer program) with reduced functionality, in some cases, making the item essentially worthless. “The word processor was released in a crippled demonstration version that did not allow you to save.”
- verb (slang, video games) To nerf something to the point of being underpowered.
Synonyms
disabled disable disenable invalid incapacitate unable destroy annihilate aerosolize atomize benothing bewreck blot out blotto dash decompose demolish desolate devastate diffuse stultify lame
Etymology
From Middle English cripel, crepel, crüpel, from Old English crypel (“crippled; a cripple”), from Proto-Germanic *krupilaz (“tending to crawl; a cripple”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to bend, crouch, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to bend, twist”), equivalent to creep + -le. Cognate with Dutch kreupel, Low German Kröpel, German Krüppel, Old Norse kryppill.
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- adjective Lame; halting. [R.] "The cripple, tardy-gaited night." Shak.
- verb To deprive of the use of a limb, particularly of a leg or foot; to lame.
- verb To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled.
Etymology [OE. cripel, crepel, crupel, AS. crypel (akin to D. kreuple, G. kr, Dan. kr, Icel. kryppill), prop., one that can not walk, but must creep, fr. AS. cre to creep. See Creep.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cripple”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details