crutch

C2 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /kɹʌt͡ʃ/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like crush /tʃ/ vs /ʃ/

Freq #20411

Meanings

1

noun
anything that serves as an expedient

They use drugs as a psychological crutch.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

crotch

Word family

Forms crutchedcrutches

Derived forms crutchercrutchlesscrutchlike

Related forms crook crotch

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

psychological crutch
something relied on for emotional reassurance or confidence

Adjective + noun

Etymology

From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.

crucche Middle English cryċċ Old English *krukkju Proto-West Germanic *krukjō Proto-Germanic *grewg- Proto-Indo-European *ger- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# crutch

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /kɹʌt͡ʃ/
**Frequency rank:** 20411

## Meanings
1. anything that serves as an expedient

## Examples
- They use drugs as a psychological crutch.

## Synonyms
- crotch

## Derived Forms
- crutcher
- crutchless
- crutchlike

## Related Forms
- crook
- crotch

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: crucche
- Root: cryċċ
- Root: *krukkju
- Root: *krukjō
- Root: *grewg-
- Root: *ger-

## Etymology
From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

markdown