limp

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lacking in strength or firmness or resilience

   gave a limp handshake

2. 2
   verb

   proceed slowly or with difficulty

   the boat limped into the harbor

3. 3
   verb

   To walk lamely, as if favoring one leg.

   Dirk Kuyt sandwiched a goal in between Carroll's double as City endured a night of total misery, with captain Carlos Tevez limping off early on with a hamstring strain that puts a serious question mark over his participation in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley.

4. 4
   verb

   To travel with a malfunctioning system of propulsion.

   The bomber limped home on one engine.

5. 5
   verb

   To move or proceed irregularly.

   limping verses

6. 6
   noun

   An irregular, jerky or awkward gait.

   She walks with a limp.

7. 7
   adj

   Lacking stiffness; floppy, flimsy.

   a limp rope

8. 8
   adj

   Soft; weak, in special physically weak.

   Another line-out was stolen, and when the ball was sent left Clerc stepped and spun through limp challenges from Wilkinson, Chris Ashton and Foden to dive over and make it 11-0.

Etymology

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”).