cripple

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to deprive of the use of a limb, especially a leg

   The accident has crippled them for life.

2. 2
   adj

   Crippled.

   And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night, who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp so tediously away.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   A person who is severely impaired or deficient in some non-physical way.

   Many a one, who perhaps doesn't suspect it, is a moral cripple, or maybe a mental cripple.

5. 5
   verb

   To make someone a cripple; to cause someone to become physically impaired.

   The car bomb crippled five passers-by.

6. 6
   verb

   To damage seriously; to destroy.

   My ambitions were crippled by a lack of money.

7. 7
   verb

   To cause severe and disabling damage; to make unable to function normally.

   With all these people all around / I'm crippled with anxiety / But I'm told it's where I'm s'posed to be.

8. 8
   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.

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.