cripple

n. [ Local. U. S. ] (a) Swampy or low wet ground, often covered with brush or with thickets; bog.

The flats or cripple land lying between high- and low-water lines, and over which the waters of the stream ordinarily come and go. Pennsylvania Law Reports.

(b) A rocky shallow in a stream; -- a lumberman's term. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Crippled p. pr. & vb. n. Crippling ] 1. To deprive of the use of a limb, particularly of a leg or foot; to lame. [ 1913 Webster ]

He had crippled the joints of the noble child. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. [ 1913 Webster ]

More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. Palfrey. [ 1913 Webster ]

An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Lame; halting. [ R. ] “The cripple, tardy-gaited night.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. cripel, crepel, crupel, AS. crypel (akin to D. kreuple, G. krüppel, Dan. kröbling, Icel. kryppill), prop., one that can not walk, but must creep, fr. AS. creópan to creep. See Creep. ] One who creeps, halts, or limps; one who has lost, or never had, the use of a limb or limbs; a lame person; hence, one who is partially disabled. [ 1913 Webster ]

I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Lamed; lame; disabled; impeded. “The crippled crone.” Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Lameness. [ R. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]