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A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg. The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs. Sir T. More. 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 for…

A contraction of two vowels (as the final and initial vowels of united words) into one long vowel, or into a dipthong; synæresis; as, cogo for coago.

A very slight convulsive or spasmodic contraction of certain muscles, external or internal. Few men can look down from a great height without creepings and crispations. O. W. Holmes.

An instrument of a hooked form, used in certain cases in the extraction of a fetus. Dunglison.

hich a substance tends to assume in solidifying, through the inherent power of cohesive attraction. It is bounded by plane surfaces, symmetrically arranged, and each species of crystal has fixed axial ratios. See Crystallization.

rystal; to take on a crystalline form, through the action of crystallogenic or cohesive attraction.

Pertaining to the production of crystals; crystal-producing; as, crystallogenic attraction.

Trouble; embarrassment; distress. [Obs.] [Written also comber.] A place of much distraction and cumber. Sir H. Wotton. Sage counsel in cumber. Sir W. Scott.

Anything to which attention is strongly turned; a center of attraction. Where perhaps some beauty lies, The cynosure of neighboring eyes. Milton.

practice of opening cysts; esp., the operation of cutting into the bladder, as for the extraction of a calculus.

A young person, either male or female, of noble or gentle extraction; as, Damsel Pepin; Damsel Richard, Prince of Wales. [Obs.]

Act of deducting or taking away; subtraction; as, the deduction of the subtrahend from the minuend.

An abstraction of money, etc., by an officer or agent

, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another; slander; detraction; calumny; aspersion.

Abstraction of a child from its parents. Lamb.

The act of giving birth; parturition; the expulsion or extraction of a fetus and its membranes.

Detraction; depreciation. [Obs.] To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme, For depravation. Shak.

The act of derogating, partly repealing, or lessening in value; disparagement; detraction; depreciation; -- followed by of, from, or to. I hope it is no derogation to the Christian religion. Locke. He counted it no derogation of his manhood to be seen to weep. F. W. Robertson.

Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction. Dryden.

Abstraction from worldly objects; renunciation. A trial which would have demanded of him a most heroic faith and the detachment of a saint. J. H. Newman.