crippled adj : disabled in the feet or legs; "a crippled soldier"; "a game leg" [syn: halt, halting, lame, game]

English

Pronunciation

Adjective

1. Pertaining to someone with a less than fully functional limb, or has injuries which prevent full mobility.

   1848 "A crippled man, twenty years older than you, whom you will have to wait on?" — Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Chapter 17.

2. Pertaining to any difficulty or impediment which can be likened to a crippling injury.

   1893 The Percy Driscoll estate was in such a crippled shape when its owner died that it could pay only sixty percent of its great indebtedness, and was settled at that rate. — Mark Twain, ''Pudd'nhead Wilson.''

Verb

crippled

1. past of cripple

A cripple is a person or animal with a disability, particularly one who is unable to walk because of an injury or illness. The word was recorded as early as 950 AD, and derives from the Proto-Germanic krupilaz. The German and Dutch words Krüppel and kreupel are cognates.

The word generally came to be regarded as pejorative when used for people, in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada during the 1960s. In other English-speaking countries, the term is still widely used without pejorative connotations. Cripple is also a transitive verb, meaning "cause a disability or inability".

Cripple may also refer to:

In society:

• Crips, a modern street gang started in Los Angeles.

In geography:

• Cripple Creek, a small town in Colorado.

In software:

• Crippleware, a type of shareware that lacks full functionality.

In mass media:

• Cripple Crow, an album by Devendra Banhart.
• Cripple Fight, an episode of South Park.
• Crippled Lucifer, an album by Burning Witch.
• The Crippled Masters, a kung-fu film.
• Cripple Need Cane, a rock band from Los Angeles.
• The Cripple of Inishmaan, an Irish play.
• Hooky the Cripple, a novel by Chopper Read.
• Cripple Clarence Lofton, a blues artist.
• Cripple Creek Ferry, a song by Neil Young.

In building construction:

• A cripple is a trimmer stud or joist which is shorter than full-length.

References

bad, castrated, damaged, debilitated, disabled, disarmed, disqualified, emasculated, game, halt, halting, hamstrung, handicapped, hobbling, hog-tied, incapacitated, inoperative, invalidated, lame, limping, maimed, paralyzed, prostrate, spavined, weak, weakened