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Cramp   /kræmp/   Listen
noun
Cramp  n.  
1.
That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance. "A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind." "Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear."
2.
(Masonry) A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.
3.
(Carp.) A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used for compressing the joints of framework, etc.
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.
5.
(Med.) A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg. "The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs."
6.
(Med.) A paralysis of certain muscles due to excessive use; as, writer's cramp; milker's cramp, etc.
Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; formerly used as a charm for the cramp. "He could turn cramp bones into chess men."
Cramp ring, a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by one of the kings of England on Good Friday.


verb
Cramp  v. t.  (past & past part. cramped; pres. part. cramping)  
1.
To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and contract; to hinder. "The mind my be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance."
2.
To fasten or hold with, or as with, a cramp.
3.
Hence, To bind together; to unite. "The... fabric of universal justic is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts."
4.
To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.
5.
To afflict with cramp. "When the gout cramps my joints."
To cramp the wheels of wagon, to turn the front wheels out of line with the hind wheels, so that one of them shall be against the body of the wagon.


adjective
Cramp  adj.  Knotty; difficult. (R.) "Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Cramp" Quotes from Famous Books



... news I got, and for this here I found and fetched along. I need him. I was on a jury once, in a murder case, and they had the tool that done the job and the lawyers tagged it Exhibit A. This is it! He's got a name, but if I tried to say it, it would cramp my jaws and hold my mouth open so long that I'd get assifixiated with this smoke. This is Bill the Bomber! Demeter, hold up the goods we ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... of the ship was quiet, but it was not tranquil. Calhoun worked calmly enough, but there were times when his inwards seemed to knot and cramp him, which was not the result of any infection or contagion or demoniac possession, but was reaction to thoughts of the imprisoned para in the laboratory. That man had gobbled the unspeakable because he could not help ...
— The Hate Disease • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... knuckle, which, in fine mutton, will be very tender, though dry. There are very fine slices in the back of the leg—turn it up, and cut the broad end, not in the direction you did the other side, but lengthwise. To cut out the cramp bone, take hold of the shank (which should be previously wound round with half a sheet of fool's-cap paper) with your left hand, and cut down to the thigh bone at g, then pass the knife under the cramp bone, in the ...
— The American Housewife • Anonymous
... never been strong since that day under the furze bush. My first impulse was to roll myself up so tightly that I got the cramp, whilst every spine on my back stood stiff with fright. But after a time I recovered myself, and took ...
— Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
... night, her danger of the early morning, the men fighting and the man dead; in spite of the excitement and risks of the afternoon, shaking the heart in relief only less than in encounter, and in spite of aching head and limbs, stiffening to cramp while she still sat and the man still slept, Amaryllis knew herself happier than ever ...
— Ambrotox and Limping Dick • Oliver Fleming


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