Crip"ple (krip"p'l), n. [OE. cripel, crepel, crupel, AS. crypel (akin to D. kreuple, G. krüppel, Dan. kröbling, Icel. kryppill), prop., one that can not walk, but must creep, fr. AS. creópan to creep. See Creep.] One who creeps, halts, or limps; one who has lost, or never had, the use of a limb or limbs; a lame person; hence, one who is partially disabled. I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine.
Dryden. © Webster 1913
Crip"ple (krip"p'l), a. Lame; halting. [R.] "The cripple, tardy-gaited night." Shak. © Webster 1913
Crip"ple, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crippled (-p'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Crippling (-pl?ng).]
1. To deprive of the use of a limb, particularly of a leg or foot; to lame. He had crippled the joints of the noble child.
Sir W. Scott. 2. To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay.
Palfrey. An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic.
Macaulay. © Webster 1913
Crip"ple, [Local. U. S.] (a) Swampy or low wet ground, often covered with brush or with thickets; bog. The flats or cripple land lying between high- and low-water lines, and over which the waters of the stream ordinarily come and go.
Pennsylvania Law Reports. (b) A rocky shallow in a stream; -- a lumberman's term. © Webster 1913
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