crippled
Americanadjective
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Offensive.
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relating to a person who is partially or totally unable to use one or more limbs.
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relating to a person who is disabled or impaired in any way.
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not operating or performing at the customary level; impaired; weakened.
Significant progress has been made in repairing the crippled power plant.
A telecommunications firm has signed a deal to get their crippled company back in business.
Sensitive Note
Why is crippled offensive? See cripple ( def. ).
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of crippled
First recorded in 1300–50; cripple ( def. ) (verb) + -ed 2 ( def. )
Explanation
When something is crippled, it's not working properly. Your bike might be crippled by the broken front brake that won't let the wheel turn freely. You can used the adjective crippled to talk about a broken machine or a process that's not working the way it should. It was once commonly used to describe a physically disabled person, but this has become an offensive term and should be avoided. The word crippled comes from the Old English crypel, which is related to cryppan, "to crook or to bend."
Vocabulary lists containing crippled
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Appeared in the March 18, 2026, print edition as 'Gulf States Want to See Iran Crippled'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
Crippled by a huge net financial debt burden -- totalling some 25.5 billion euros last September -- TIM has seen stiff price competition steadily erode earnings in its key domestic market.
From Reuters • Jan. 25, 2023
Crippled as its economy has been by sanctions, Russia has managed to maintain relatively normal economic conditions, partly by sustaining grain and energy sales worth billions of dollars each month.
From Washington Post • Aug. 24, 2022
Crippled by sanctions and the sudden cutoff of development aid, Afghanistan’s economy is on the verge of collapse.
From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2022
Crippled muscles withered further, synapses wouldn't fire, wasted legs refused to ambulate.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
