[Found since 16th century: apparently from Du. or LG. Cf. MDu. krampe (Kilian, in mod.Du. replaced by kram), OHG. chramph ‘hook, aduncus’ and chrampho, MHG. kramphe, mod.G. dial. krampf m.; also mod.G. krampe, properly of LG. origin: orig. the same word as CRAMP sb.1, but now differentiated in the various langs. (mod.G. krampf spasm, krampe the instrument, Du. kramp and kram); the immediate derivation of the two words in Eng. is distinct.]
† 1. An iron bar with the end bent to a hook: a grappling-iron; = CRAMP-IRON 1. Obs. exc. dial.
1503. Kal. Sheph. (1506), F iv. Wheles … lyke mylles euermore tournynge … & the wheles were full of hokes and crampes of yron.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 434. For the undoyng of which [knottes] shall neede no great yron crampe, but a seely simple wyer onely shall suffice.
1648. Wilkins, Math. Magick, I. vii. 52. A sharp graple or cramp of iron, which may be apt to take hold of any place where it lights.
1883. Hampshire Gloss., Cramp, a bent iron, or the like.
2. A small bar of metal with the ends bent, used for holding together two pieces of masonry, timber, etc., a clamp; = CRAMP-IRON 2.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 26. Peece the timber work in such sort, as that it may resemble an arch of stone, make the ioints strong, and binde them fast with crampes or dogs of iron.
1628. Louth Churchw. Acc., IV. 34 (in Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss.). A Drill for puttinge in ye cramps xijd.
1751. Labelye, Westm. Br., 20. Every Course cramped together with Iron Cramps, let into the Stones.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 41. Iron cramps were used to retain tho stones of each course together.
1805. Southey, Madoc in W., xv. Now have they From the stone coffin wrench’d the iron cramps.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., 1223. In modern buildings iron is chiefly used for the cramps…. The Romans wisely used cramps of bronze.
3. A portable tool or press with a movable part which can be screwed up so as to hold things together; esp. one used by joiners and others for pressing together two pieces of wood, etc., which are being joined (see quots.). Cf. CLAMP sb.1 2.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. i. 52. A pair of Cramps made of Iron, with Screws to fasten the Scale of Equal Parts and the Scale to be made together.
1850. Weale, Dict. Terms, Cramp, a short bar of iron, with its ends bent so as to form three sides of a parallelogram: at one end a set-screw is inserted, so that two pieces of metal, being placed between, can be held firmly together by the screw.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Cramp, an iron instrument about four feet long, having a screw at one end, and a moveable shoulder at the other, employed by carpenters and joiners for forcing mortise and tenon work together.
1882. Worcester Exhib. Catal., iii. 16. Joiner’s Screws, Cramps.
4. In other technical uses.
† a. A contrivance for stopping a windmill. Obs. rare.
1612. Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 69. The Windmilnes in Moorfields … haue a deuise called the Crampe, which will sodenly (in the face of the storm) [check] the … circumgyration of the wheeles.
b. = CRAMPET 3, CRAMPON 3.
1890. J. Kerr, Hist. Curling, I. i. 59. Riddell sprung upon the cramps. Ibid., II. i. 206. A pair of cramps cost 2s. 8d.
1892. Cornh. Mag., June, 612. He … puts on his heavy shoes with iron cramps in the soles.
† c. An iron fastened on the feet for gliding on the ice; ? a skate. Obs.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 191. The youth, on cramps of polished steel, Like lightning o’er the lake they glide.
d. Shoemaking. ‘A piece of wood having a curve corresponding to that of the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape’ (Webster). Also called crimp.
5. The cluster of calyces or husks of a bunch of nuts.
1866. Nature & Art, 1 Dec., 216/1. A basket or bag of nuts in their husks or cramps being produced. Ibid. For so many lovers had Sue of the Vale, That no cramp of nuts could give half of the tale.
6. ‘A pillar of rock or mineral left for support’ (Raymond, Mining Gloss., 1881).
7. A cramped or stiffly wrinkled part in paper, etc.; a fold, crease, ruck.
1828. Hutton, Course Math., II. 55. And when the paper is become dry, it will, by contracting again, stretch itself smooth and flat from any cramps and unevenness.
8. fig. A constraining and narrowly confining force or power; a cramping restraint.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 255. They are too wise to have any such Cramps upon Trade.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 466. Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear!
1820. H. Matthews, Diary of Invalid, 454. His genius was embarrassed by the cramp and confinement of the French literary laws.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., IV. iii. IV. § 104. 124. Attempts to fasten down the progressive powers of the human mind by the cramps or association.
9. A cramped or constrained condition or state.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 143. The compressed nature struggles through at every crevice, but can never get the cramp and stunt out of it.
10. Comb., as cramp-frame, -hole, -joint, etc.; cramp-drill, a portable drill consisting of a frame similar to the joiner’s cramp, with a drill-spindle, feed-screw, and support for the article to be drilled.
1796. Pegge, Anonym. (1809), 346. The cramp-holes … do not perfectly correspond to the letters.
