[f. CRIPPLE sb. Cf. Ger. krüppeln, trans. and intr. in senses 1 and 3.]
1. trans. To deprive (wholly or partly) of the use of one’s limbs; to lame, disable, make a cripple of.
a. 1300. [see CRIPPLED].
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. i. 24. Thou cold Sciatica, Cripple our Senators, that their limbes may halt As lamely as their Manners!
1791. Huddesford, Salmag., 119.
| And, falling in his drunken fits, | |
| Crippled his Nose and lost his Wits. |
1859. Kingsley, Misc. (1860), II. 326. Sailors … crippled by scurvy or Tropic fevers.
2. transf. and fig. To disable, impair: a. the action or effectiveness of material objects, mechanical contrivances, etc.
1694. Smith & Walford, Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 75. The Grass and Trees are much weather-beaten, worn away, and crippled.
1725. W. Halfpenny, Sound Building, 22. So, that the Mason, or Bricklayer, shall twin their Arches thereon without crippling them.
1805. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp., VII. 153, note. The lower masts, yards and bowsprit all crippled.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xviii. 247. No sickness … crippling the warrior on the very eve of conquest.
b. a person in his resources, means, efforts, etc., or immaterial things, as trade, schemes, strength, operations, etc.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. III. Introd. (1852), 531. To creeple all the learned, godly, painful ministers of the nation.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 173, ¶ 1. The mind … is crippled … by perpetual application to the same set of ideas.
a. 1809. J. Palmer, Like Master Like Man (1811), II. 56. He was … crippled of present means.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. iv. 289. The nobility, crippled by the wars of the Roses.
1880. L. Oliphant, Land of Gilead, x. 304. The trade … is crippled by the difficulty of transport.
3. intr. To move or walk lamely; to hobble. (Now chiefly Sc.)
c. 1220. Bestiary, 130. He crepeð cripelande forth.
a. 1455. Holland, Howlate, 956. He crepillit, he crengit, he carfully cryd.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., cclxxix. The King (who creepled till he came before This Shrine) walkes vpright now.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. Her discomfited master … was crippling towards him, his clothes much soiled with his fall.
1878. W. C. Smith, Hilda (1879), 239. The wounded … cripple through the street.
