cramp Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a painful and involuntary muscular contraction
    muscle spasm; spasm.
  2. noun a clamp for holding pieces of wood together while they are glued
  3. noun a strip of metal with ends bent at right angles; used to hold masonry together
    cramp iron.
  4. verb secure with a cramp
    • cramp the wood
  5. verb prevent the progress or free movement of
    strangle; hamper; halter.
    • He was hampered in his efforts by the bad weather
    • the imperialist nation wanted to strangle the free trade between the two small countries
  6. verb affect with or as if with a cramp
  7. verb suffer from sudden painful contraction of a muscle

WordNet

Cramp noun
Etymology
OE. crampe, craumpe; akin to D. & Sw. kramp, Dan. krampe, G. krampf (whence F. crampe), Icel. krappr strait, narrow, and to E. crimp, crumple; cf. cram. See Grape.
Definitions
  1. That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shakle; a hindrance.
    A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind. L'Estrange.
    Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear. Cowper.
  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 jionts 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. Sir T. More.
Cramp transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Cramped (krmt; 215); present participle & verbal noun Cramping
Definitions
  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. Layard.
  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. Burke.
  4. To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.
  5. To afflict with cramp.
    When the gout cramps my joints. Ford.
Cramp adjective
Etymology
See Cramp, n.
Definitions
  1. Knotty; difficult. R.
    Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion. Coleridge.

Webster 1913