/kɹæmp/
OriginFrom Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramp”), from Proto-West Germanic *krampu, from Proto-Germanic *krampō (“cramp, clasp”). Distant relative of English crop.
- countable, uncountableA painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction.
“He retired hurt at 31 due to a leg cramp.”
“August 1534, Margaret Roper (or Thomas More in her name), letter to Alice Alington
the cramp also that divers nights gripeth him in his legs.”
- countable, uncountableThat which confines or contracts.
“A narrow Fortune is undoubtedly a Cramp to a great Mind.”
“How does it grate upon his thankleſs ear, / Crippling his pleaſures with the cramp of fear!”
- countable, uncountableA clamp for carpentry or masonry.
- countable, uncountableA 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.
- intransitive(of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably.
- transitiveTo affect with cramps or spasms.
“The collar of the tunic scratched my neck, the steel helmet made my head ache, and the puttees cramped my leg muscles.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo prohibit movement or expression of.
“You're cramping my style.”
“But the front of the animal , which was in full , was narrow and cramped , and unequal in dignity to the side”
- transitiveTo restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp.
“You're going to need to cramp the wheels on this hill.”
“when the gout cramps my joints”
- To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp iron.
- broadlyTo bind together; to unite.
“The […] fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.”
- To form on a cramp.
- archaiccramped; narrow
“[…] the result was those folio volumes of MSS. now in the British Museum, in which inquirers into the history of that period find so much interesting material in such a confused state and in such a dr”
Formscramps(plural) · cramps(present, singular, third-person) · cramping(participle, present) · cramped(participle, past) · cramped(past) · more cramp(comparative) · most cramp(superlative) · Cramps(plural)