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. I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine. Dryden.
Lame; halting. [R.] "The cripple, tardy-gaited night." Shak.
To deprive of the use of a limb, particularly of a leg or foot; to lame. He had crippled the joints of the noble child. Sir W. Scott.
To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. Palfrey. An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic. Macaulay.
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