cripple

1 to cause severe or permanent injury to the car crash may have crippled two people for life Synonyms maim, disable, incapacitate, lame, mutilateRelated 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, tortureNear 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, damage, cross (up), deface, disfigure, endamage, flaw, harm, hurt, impair, injure, mar, spoil, vitiateRelated 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, wreckNear Antonyms cure, heal, help, rectify, rehabilitate, remedy; edit, remodel, revise; ameliorate, better, enhance, enrich, improve, meliorate, perfect, refineAntonyms 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 paralyze, disable, hamstring, immobilize, incapacitate, prostrateRelated Words attenuate, debilitate, enervate, enfeeble, sap, tire, undercut, undermine, weaken; hobble, lame; maim, mutilate; knock outNear Antonyms energize, galvanize, invigorate, vitalize; fortify, strengthen; empower; freshen, refresh, refreshen, regenerate, rejuvenate, restore, revitalize, revive