cramp
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Cramp
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Etymology
From 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.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɹæmp/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -æmp
Noun
cramp (countable and uncountable, plural cramps)
- A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction.
- Hyponyms: charley horse, writer's cramp
- Coordinate term: twinge
- 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.
- That which confines or contracts.
- 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:
- A narrow Fortune is undoubtedly a Cramp to a great Mind.
- 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Truth”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 96:
- How does it grate upon his thankleſs ear, / Crippling his pleaſures with the cramp of fear!
- A clamp for carpentry or masonry.
- 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.
Derived terms
Translations
painful contraction of a muscle
|
clamp for carpentry or masonry — see clamp
piece of wood used to shape boot
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
cramp (third-person singular simple present cramps, present participle cramping, simple past and past participle cramped)
- (intransitive) (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably.
- (transitive) To affect with cramps or spasms.
- 1936, Heinrich Hauser, Once Your Enemy (translated from the German by Norman Gullick)
- The collar of the tunic scratched my neck, the steel helmet made my head ache, and the puttees cramped my leg muscles.
- 1936, Heinrich Hauser, Once Your Enemy (translated from the German by Norman Gullick)
- (transitive, figurative) To prohibit movement or expression of.
- You're cramping my style.
- 1853, Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon:
- But the front of the animal , which was in full , was narrow and cramped , and unequal in dignity to the side
- (transitive) To restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp.
- You're going to need to cramp the wheels on this hill.
- 1633, John Ford, Perkin Warbeck:
- when the gout cramps my joints
- To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp iron.
- (by extension) To bind together; to unite.
- 1780, Edmund Burke, Principles in Politics:
- The […] fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
- To form on a cramp.
- to cramp boot legs
Derived terms
Translations
to contract painfully and uncontrollably
|
to prohibit movement or expression
to restrain to a specific physical position
|
Adjective
cramp (comparative more cramp, superlative most cramp)
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “cramp”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- “cramp”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
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Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Adjective
cramp
Derived terms
- neuchramp
Mutation
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