cripple

cripple

verb

Definition of CRIPPLE

1

to cause severe or permanent injury to <the car crash may have crippled two people for life>

Synonyms cripple, disable, incapacitate, lame, mutilate

Related Words dismember, hamstring, hobble, paralyze; batter, bruise, bung up, mangle, maul, rough (up); gore, lacerate, wing, wound; disfigure, scar; kneecap; break, damage, harm, hurt, impair, injure; bash, beat, belt, bludgeon, buffet, drub, hammer, lace, lambaste (or lambast), lick, paste, pelt, pommel, pound, pummel, thump; bang, box, hit, punch, slap, smack, smash, sock, spank, swat, swipe, thrash, thwack, whack; flog, lash, wallop, whip; kill, murder; torment, torture

Near Antonyms cure, heal, rehabilitate, remedy; doctor, fix, mend, patch; rejuvenate, renew, repair, restore

2

to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of <the collision so severely crippled the ship that it had to be towed into port>

Synonyms blemish, bloody, break, compromise, crab, cripple, cross (up), deface, disfigure, endamage, flaw, harm, hurt, impair, injure, mar, spoil, vitiate

Related Words deteriorate, enervate, enfeeble, undermine, weaken; erode, scour, wash out, wear (away); blight, tarnish; dent, ding, dint; botch, gum (up), queer; lacerate, wound; disable, hamstring, lame, maim, mangle, mutilate, torment, torture; annihilate, bang up, bash, batter, clobber, crush, dash, decimate, demolish, desolate, destroy, devastate, do in, pulverize, raze, ruin, scourge, shatter, smash, tear down, total, waste, wipe out, wreck

Near Antonyms cure, heal, help, rectify, rehabilitate, remedy; edit, remodel, revise; ameliorate, better, enhance, enrich, improve, meliorate, perfect, refine

Antonyms doctor, fix, mend, patch, rebuild, recondition, reconstruct, renovate, repair, revamp

3

to render powerless, ineffective, or unable to move <a wave of strikes crippled that nation's steel industry>

Synonyms cripple, disable, hamstring, immobilize, incapacitate, prostrate

Related Words attenuate, debilitate, enervate, enfeeble, sap, tire, undercut, undermine, weaken; hobble, lame; maim, mutilate; knock out

Near Antonyms energize, galvanize, invigorate, vitalize; fortify, strengthen; empower; freshen, refresh, refreshen, regenerate, rejuvenate, restore, revitalize, revive