[Origin: bef. 950; ME cripel, OE crypel; akin to creep]
—Related forms
crippler, noun
crip·pling·ly, adverb
—Synonyms 7. maim. Cripple,disable mean to injure to a degree that interferes with normal activities. To cripple is to injure in such a way as to deprive of the use of a member, particularly a leg. Disable, a more general word, implies any such illness, injury, or impairment: disabled by an attack of malaria; disabled by a wound.
Cripple Creek, CO (city, FIPS 18530) Location: 38.74630 N, 105.17871 W Population (1990): 584 (543 housing units) Area: 2.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Creep\ (kr[=e]p), v. t. [imp. Crept (kr[e^]pt) (Crope (kr[=o]p), Obs.); p. p. Crept; p. pr. & vb. n. Creeping.] [OE. crepen, creopen, AS. cre['o]pan; akin to D. kruipen, G. kriechen, Icel. krjupa, Sw. krypa, Dan. krybe. Cf. Cripple, Crouch.]1. To move along the ground, or on any other surface, on the belly, as a worm or reptile; to move as a child on the hands and knees; to crawl. Ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. --Milton. 2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness. The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school. --Shak. Like a guilty thing, I creep. --Tennyson. 3. To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self; as, age creeps upon us. The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. --Locke. Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. --2. Tim. iii. 6. 4. To slip, or to become slightly displaced; as, the collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying; the quicksilver on a mirror may creep. 5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant. To come as humbly as they used to creep. --Shak. 6. To grow, as a vine, clinging to the ground or to some other support by means of roots or rootlets, or by tendrils, along its length. "Creeping vines." --Dryden. 7. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl; as, the sight made my flesh creep. See Crawl, v. i., 4. 8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
Cree"ple\ (kr[=e]"p'l), n. [See Cripple.]1. A creeping creature; a reptile. [Obs.] There is one creeping beast, or long creeple (as the name is in Devonshire), that hath a rattle at his tail that doth discover his age. --Morton (1632). 2. One who is lame; a cripple. [Obs.] Thou knowest how lame a creeple this world is. --Donne.
Crip"ple\ (kr[i^]p"p'l), n. [OE. cripel, crepel, crupel, AS. crypel (akin to D. kreuple, G. kr["u]ppel, Dan. kr["o]bling, Icel. kryppill), prop., one that can not walk, but must creep, fr. AS. cre['o]pan 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. I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine. --Dryden.
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