crippint

Same as crespine. cripple (krip'l), n. and a. [Cf. dial. creeple; IMG:content-1633.png:[blocks in formation] A good dog must... understand how to retrieve his birds judiciously, bringing the cripples first. R. B. Roosevelt, Game Water-Birds (1884), p. 335. 2. A dense thicket in swampy or low land; a patch of low timber-growth. [Local, U. S.] The Ruffed Grouse often takes refuge from the sports man amidst the thickest cripples, deepest gullies, and densest foliage, where it is impo ible to get at them. Sportsman's Gazetteer, p. 129. 3. A rocky shallow in a stream: so called by lumbermen. [Local, U. S.] II. a. Lame; decrepit. Chide the cripple tardy-gaited night. Shak., Hen. V., iv. (cho.). IMG:content-1634.png:[blocks in formation] Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt As lamely as their manners! Shak ., T. of A., iv. 1. Knots upon his gouty joints appear, And chalk is in his crippled fingers found. Dryden. 2. To disable in part; impair the power or efficiency of; weaken by impairment: as, the fleet was crippled in the engagement; to cripple one's resources by bad debts. More serious embarra ments of a different description were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. Palfrey. Debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples Emerson, Nature. and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base. Syn. 1. Maim , Disfigure , etc. See mutilate . crippledom (krip'l-dom), n. [ cripple + -dom .] 1. The state of being a cripple; cripple ne . I was emerging rapidly from a state of crippledom to one of comparative activity. IMG:content-1635.png:[blocks in formation] v.; likened to a cripple's crutches.] One of a set of spars or timbers set up as supports against the sides of a building. Also spelled cripling. cripst, a. A Middle English transposition of crisp.