cripple

UK:**UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/ˈkrɪpəl/US:USA pronunciation: IPA and respellingUSA pronunciation: IPA/ˈkrɪpəl/ ,USA pronunciation: respelling(krip′əl)

Inflections of 'cripple' (v): (⇒ conjugate)
cripples
v 3rd person singular
crippling
v pres p
crippled
v past
crippled
v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
crip•ple /ˈkrɪpəl/USA pronunciation   n., v., -pled, -pling. 
n. [countable]
  1. Slang TermsSometimes Offensive.
    • a lame or disabled person or animal.
    • a person disabled in any way:a mental cripple.

v. [~ + object]
  1. to make a cripple of;
    lame:The bullet in his spine had crippled him permanently.
  2. to damage;
    keep from working well;
    impair:The snowstorm crippled the railway system.
crip•pled, adj. 
crip•pler, n. [countable]

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
crip•ple  (krip′əl),USA pronunciation n., v., -pled, -pling, adj. 
n. 
  1. Slang Terms[Sometimes Offensive.]
    • a person or animal that is partially or totally unable to use one or more limbs;
      a lame or disabled person or animal.
    • a person who is disabled or impaired in any way:a mental cripple.
  2. anything that is impaired or flawed.
  3. a wounded animal, esp. one shot by a hunter.
  4. Building[Carpentry.]any structural member shorter than usual, as a stud beneath a window sill.
  5. Dialect Terms[Delaware Valley.]a swampy, densely overgrown tract of land.

v.t. 
  1. to make a cripple of;
    lame.
  2. to disable;
    impair;
    weaken.

adj. 
  1. [Carpentry.]jack1 (def. 29).
  • bef. 950; Middle English cripel, Old English crypel; akin to creep
crip′pler, n. 
crip′pling•ly, adv. 
    7. maim. Cripple, disable mean to injure to a degree that interferes with normal activities. To cripple is to injure in such a way as to deprive of the use of a member, particularly a leg. Disable, a more general word, implies any such illness, injury, or impairment:disabled by an attack of malaria; disabled by a wound.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
cripple /ˈkrɪpəl/ n
  1. old-fashioned offensive a person who is unable to walk or walk easily as a result of injury or disability
  2. offensive a person who is or seems deficient in some way: an emotional cripple
 vb
  1. (transitive) to disable (a person) in some way
  2. (transitive) to make ineffective or incapable
Etymology: Old English crypel; related to crēopan to creep, Old Frisian kreppel a cripple, Middle Low German kröpelˈcrippler n
'cripple' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
apoplexy - Cripple Creek - hamstring - maim - becripple - crip - disable - handicap - impoverish - incapacitate - jack - kneecap - mayhem - mutilate - sabotage - stultify
Collocations: dated, offensive: a [mental, physical] cripple, dated, offensive: The [boy, girl, man, woman] is a cripple., dated, offensive: has been [left, made] a cripple (by), more...

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