limp

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To walk unevenly because one leg is hurt or weak.

   He limped off the field with an injured knee.

2. 2
   noun

   An uneven, awkward way of walking.

   She walks with a slight limp.

3. 3
   adj

   Soft and not stiff; floppy.

   The flowers had gone limp in the heat.

From Middle English limpen (“to fall short”), from Old English limpan, from Proto-West Germanic *limpan, from Proto-Germanic *limpaną (“to hang down”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lemb-, *(s)lembʰ- (“to hang loosely, hang limply”). Cognate with Low German lumpen (“to limp”), Middle High German limpfen (“to hobble, limp”), dialectal German lampen (“to hang down loosely”), Icelandic limpa (“limpness, weakness”).

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