Cramp

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɹæmp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

Origin

From Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe, cranpe ("cramp"), from Old Frankish *krampa ("cramp"), from Proto-Germanic *krampō ("cramp, clasp"), from Proto-Indo-European *grem- ("to unite; lap, pile, heap"), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- ("to unite, collect, forgather"). Cognate with Dutch kramp ("cramp"), German Low German Kramp ("cramp"), German Krampe and Krampf ("cramp"), Swedish kramp ("cramp"), Icelandic krampa ("cramp").

Full definition of cramp

Noun

1. A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled.
• Sir T. MoreThe cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.
2. That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.
• L'EstrangeA narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
• Cowpercrippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear
3. A clamp for carpentry or masonry.
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.

Derived terms

• brain cramp
• cramp ring
• writer's cramp

Verb

1. (intransitive) (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably.
2. (transitive) To prohibit movement or expression.You're cramping my style.
• LayardThe mind may be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance.
3. (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.
• Fordwhen the gout cramps my joints
4. To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp.
5. (by extension) To bind together; to unite.
• BurkeThe ... fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
6. To form on a cramp.to cramp boot legs