cripple
pronunciation
How to pronounce cripple in British English:
UK [ˈkrɪpl]
How to pronounce cripple in American English:
US [ˈkrɪpl]
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- Noun:
- someone whose legs are disabled
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- Verb:
- deprive of strength or efficiency; make useless or worthless
- deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg
Word Origin
- cripple
- cripple: [OE] The etymological sense of cripple appears to be ‘someone who creeps along’, for it probably goes back ultimately to the same Indo- European base, *greub-, as creep. The word is widespread in the Germanic languages: German has kruppel, Dutch kreupel, and Norwegian krypel.=> creep
- cripple (n.)
- Old English crypel, related to cryppan "to crook, bend," from Proto-Germanic *krupilaz (cognates: Old Frisian kreppel, Middle Dutch cropel, German krüppel, Old Norse kryppill). Possibly also related to Old English creopan "to creep" (creopere, literally "creeper," was another Old English word for "crippled person").
- cripple (v.)
- mid-13c., "to move slowly," from cripple (n.). Meaning "make a cripple of, lame" is from early 14c. Related: Crippled; crippling.
Example
- 1. Critics say that would cripple an already beleaguered economy .
- 2. Second , planners assume that future wars will involve cyber-attacks to cripple the enemy 's entire society by disabling electricity , communications and banking networks .
- 3. Rising wages will cripple competitiveness !
- 4. Famines lay waste to countries ; bad diets cripple them silently .
- 5. Another is that fines of this sort could cripple firms , reducing competition .