GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 3 definitions

1.       
   Cramp , n. [OE. crampe, craumpe; akin to D. & Sw. kramp, Dan. krampe, G. krampf (whence F. crampe), Icel. krappr strait, narrow, and to E. crimp, crumple; cf. cram. See Grape.]
   That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.
   1913 Webster
   A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
   L'Estrange.
   
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   Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear.
   Cowper.
   
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   (Masonry) A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.
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   (Carp.) A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used for compressing the joints of framework, etc.
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   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.
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   (Med.) A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg.
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   The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.
   Sir T. More.
   
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   (Med.) A paralysis of certain muscles due to excessive use; as, writer's cramp; milker's cramp, etc.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
   Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp. Halliwell. “He could turn cramp bones into chess men.” Dickens. -- 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.
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2.       
   Cramp, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cramped (krămt; 215); p. pr. & vb. n. Cramping.]
   To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and contract; to hinder.
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   The mind my be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance.
   Layard.
   
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   To fasten or hold with, or as with, a cramp.
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    Hence, to bind together; to unite.
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   The . . . fabric of universal justic is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
   Burke.
   
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   To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.
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   To afflict with cramp.
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   When the gout cramps my joints.
   Ford.
   
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   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.
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3.       
   Cramp, a. [See Cramp, n.] Knotty; difficult. [R.]
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   Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion.
   Coleridge.
   
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