Cramp
Cramp (kramp) , noun
[Old English crampe, craumpe; akin to Dutch & Swedish kramp, Danish krampe, German krampf (whence French crampe), Icelandic krappr strait, narrow, and to English crimp, crumple; compare cram. See Grape.]
1.
That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.
A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear.
2.
(Masonry) A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.
3.
(Carpentry) A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used for compressing the joints of framework, etc.
4.
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.
5.
(Medicine) A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg.
The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.
6.
(Medicine) A paralysis of certain muscles due to excessive use; as, writer's cramp; milker's cramp, etc.
Collocations (2)
Cramp bone , the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp. — Dickens He could turn cramp bones into chess men.
Cramp ring , a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by one of the kings of England on Good Friday.
Cramp , transitive verb
1.
To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and contract; to hinder.
The mind my be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance.
2.
To fasten or hold with, or as with, a cramp.
3.
to bind together; to unite.
The... fabric of universal justic is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
4.
To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.
5.
To afflict with cramp.
When the gout cramps my joints.
Collocations (1)
To cramp the wheels of wagon , to turn the front wheels out of line with the hind wheels, so that one of them shall be against the body of the wagon.
Cramp , adjective
[See Cramp, n.]
Knotty; difficult. [Rare]
Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion.