cripple
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɹɪp(ə)l/
rhymes: -ɪpəl
Forms: form: cripples
form: crippling
form: crippled
form: crippled
form: creeple
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.
Senses: examples: text: The car bomb crippled five passers-by.
text: A rackingly painful disease that affects the joints and finally cripples, it is caused by an imbalance of uric acid in the system.
ref: 2014, Charles L. Mee, Jr, Lorenzo de Medici:
synonyms: word: disable
word: disenable
word: cripple
word: incapacitate
word: unable
glosses: To make someone a cripple; to cause someone to become physically impaired.
examples: text: My ambitions were crippled by a lack of money.
text: But in respect to the emotional crippling of children it seems to me that women have been overblamed for the kinds of mothers they make, and underblamed for the failure of their marriages.
ref: 1968, Cynthia Propper Seton, A Special and Curious Blessing, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., page 22:
text: The rules of engagement issued by Commander in Chief Pacific and U.S. Taiwan Defense Command for the air defense of Taiwan were highly restrictive prior to the 1958 crisis. American fighters on Taiwan were only permitted to fire on hostile aircraft entering Taiwan's airspace and were not permitted hot pursuit in international airspace. U.S. combat air patrols were required to remain east of the "Davis Line," which ran approximately down the center of the Taiwan Strait. After the crisis erupted, the U.S. Air Force commander on Taiwan convinced CINCPAC and the JCS that these rules would cripple air defense efforts in the event of concerted Communist air strikes against Taiwan. In September the JCS approved three relaxations to the rules of engagement: first, U.S. fighters were authorized to engage Communist aircraft crossing the Davis Line on an apparent course toward Taiwan or allied forces;[…]
ref: 1988 December, Joseph Frederick Bouchard, “Naval Operations in Crises”, in Use of naval force in crises: A theory of stratified crisis interaction., volume II, Stanford University, published 1989, →OCLC, page 453:
text: “I was to see him the halfweek before, to plead for a reduction in the taxes he has placed on us. Impossible, to pay such a fee, and no reason for imposing it. The metalwrights are always willing to do our share, but there need must be a reason for it! He cripples us to build his treasury, and forces honest men to find work elsewhere.” / “The day I meet an honest metalwright, I’ll eat your hat,” a third voice said.
ref: 2009, Laura Anne Gilman, Flesh and Fire (The Vineart War; 1), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, published 2010, →ISBN, pages 392–393:
synonyms: word: destroy
word: annihilate
word: aerosolize
word: atomize
word: benothing
word: bewreck
word: blot out
word: blotto
word: dash
word: decompose
word: demolish
word: desolate
word: devastate
word: diffuse
word: disintegrate
word: disperse
word: dissolve
word: eliminate
word: eradicate
word: erase
word: exterminate
word: extinguish
word: extirpate
word: fuck
word: harry
word: jazz
word: lay waste
word: level
word: liquidate
word: nuke
word: obliterate
word: pull down
word: pulverize
word: race
word: raze
word: ravage
word: remove
word: ruin
word: stamp out
word: total
word: unbreed
word: unexist
word: unmake
word: uproot
word: waste
word: wipe out
word: wipe off
word: wreck
word: abuse
word: annoy
word: bewound
word: damage
word: damnify
word: dere
word: do damage to
word: do for
word: do ill
word: do violence to
word: forwork
word: grieve
word: harm
word: harrow
word: hurt
word: injure
word: maul
word: misdo
word: put someone in hospital
word: scaith
word: scathe
word: vulnerate
word: wet
word: wound
glosses: To damage seriously; to destroy.
examples: text: With all these people all around / I'm crippled with anxiety / But I'm told it's where I'm s'posed to be.
ref: 2019, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, I Don't Care:
text: But the penny was beginning to drop: even a successful railway could be crippled by its capital costs.
ref: 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 64:
glosses: To cause severe and disabling damage; to make unable to function normally.
examples: text: The word processor was released in a crippled demonstration version that did not allow you to save.
synonyms: limit
restrict
glosses: To release a product (especially a computer program) with reduced functionality, in some cases, making the item essentially worthless.
topics: video-games
glosses: To nerf something to the point of being underpowered.
Derived terms: becripple
Cripple Creek
crippledom
crippleness
crippler
cripplesome
crippleware
cripply
emotional cripple
go it, ye cripples
nipple cripple
Related terms: disfigurement
lame
paralysis
disability