1
as in incapacitates
to cause severe or permanent injury to
the car crash may have crippled two people for life
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in injures
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of
the collision so severely crippled the ship that it had to be towed into port
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in paralyzes
to render powerless, ineffective, or unable to move
a wave of strikes crippled that nation's steel industry
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Recent Examples of cripples
These pressures could produce a tsunami that fractures the state’s fiscal foundation, self-inflicts a crisis ultimately demanding drastic cuts, and cripples its competitiveness.
—
Andrew Rein, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026
Scarface and friends attack the lab, and break out the kryptonite that cripples El and Kali.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
Second, this ambiguity around responsibility cripples an organization’s ability to respond effectively.
—Nelson Lim, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2025
Drones allow aggressors to target critical infrastructure that cripples a defender’s economy at low cost and with high accuracy.
—Omar Al-Ubaydli, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2025
This inefficiency is invisible during small-scale development tests but completely cripples an application’s performance under the heavy load of a real production environment.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
An ongoing alien siege cripples the world’s militaries, infrastructure, and communication centers but Will can run Premiere Pro, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and remote control a Tesla all at the same time.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2025
Andrew Rein, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026
Scarface and friends attack the lab, and break out the kryptonite that cripples El and Kali.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
Second, this ambiguity around responsibility cripples an organization’s ability to respond effectively.
—Nelson Lim, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2025
Drones allow aggressors to target critical infrastructure that cripples a defender’s economy at low cost and with high accuracy.
—Omar Al-Ubaydli, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2025
This inefficiency is invisible during small-scale development tests but completely cripples an application’s performance under the heavy load of a real production environment.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
An ongoing alien siege cripples the world’s militaries, infrastructure, and communication centers but Will can run Premiere Pro, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and remote control a Tesla all at the same time.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cripples
Verb
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Lorenzo confronts and incapacitates Pepe, Sonia’s main ally, before facing Sonia herself.—
Isabella Wandermurem,
Time,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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When Don injures his hand, Blue (Hunter McVey) is forced to step into the competition for him.—
Glenn Garner,
Deadline,
26 Feb. 2026
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Bystander videos, like the ones taken of Pretti, have played a key role for decades in informing the public when law enforcement kills or injures people.—
Ava Berger,
NPR,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Monster blizzard paralyzes Northeast with extreme snow, soaring power outages.—
,
FOXNews.com,
23 Feb. 2026
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For example, the curare plant poisons used by South and Central American hunters paralyzes the respiratory system.—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
7 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Some even have an immobilizer that disables the ignition if thieves have a key.—
Jeff Wagner,
CBS News,
24 Feb. 2026
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For more information on why The Athletic occasionally disables comments on stories, please click here.—
James McNicholas,
New York Times,
12 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Kemerly was diagnosed with a liver disease in 2007 that slowly damages the liver.—
Chris Hoffman,
CBS News,
5 Mar. 2026
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For example, if a hurricane destroys a school, a courthouse and 50 miles of roads in a city, FEMA will give the local government more money than if that same hurricane damages one building.—
Lauren Sommer,
NPR,
17 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Pribisco said the bill undermines public trust and perception of officers in communities that already have heavy interactions with police officers.—
Marta Zherukha,
Miami Herald,
11 Mar. 2026
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Requiring them to operate as ordinary MPIA applicants misunderstands their role and undermines their purpose.—
Vaughn Stewart,
Baltimore Sun,
7 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The picture exudes both grace and vulnerability, and hints at imperfection by way of a disconcerting, coral-like wrinkle that mars the foot’s heel.—
Chris Wiley,
New Yorker,
20 Dec. 2025
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Deadly holiday weekend mars broad crime drop The back-and-forth followed a Labor Day weekend of deadly violence in Chicago worse than in the previous two years, with seven people shot to death, according to preliminary Chicago Police Department reports.—
Andy Rose,
CNN Money,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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And if the economy deteriorates and the labor market materially weakens at the same time?—
Allie Canal,
NBC news,
7 Mar. 2026
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Without this supply from the updraft, the storm weakens and dissipates.—
Mary Wasson,
Austin American Statesman,
5 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cripples.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cripples. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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