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Showing results for cramped. Search instead for ramped.
Synonyms

cramped

1 American  
[krampt] / kræmpt /

adjective

  1. affected with a cramp in a muscle or muscles.

cramped 2 American  
[krampt] / kræmpt /

adjective

  1. confined or severely limited in space.

    cramped closets.

    1. (of handwriting) with characters written small and crowded together.

    2. (of a style of writing) hard to understand; crabbed.

cramped British  
/ kræmpt /

adjective

  1. closed in; restricted

  2. (esp of handwriting) small and irregular; difficult to read

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • crampedness noun

Etymology

Origin of cramped1

First recorded in 1670–80; cramp 1 + -ed 3

Origin of cramped2

First recorded in 1670–80; cramp 2 + -ed 2

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.

I’m in a cramped examination room at a clinic in Panama City.

From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026

His family moved in with his grandmother, squeezing into a cramped apartment full of aunts, uncles and cousins.

From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026

But institutional investment enables hundreds of thousands of families to live in homes, rather than cramped apartments.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

When AFP visited, relatives of the missing packed into a local elder's cramped home, showing WhatsApp and Facebook groups filled with blurry images, unverified lists and rumours.

From Barron's • Feb. 18, 2026

The CIA's Moscow station was a windowless office—a "box," she called it, because the space was so cramped.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

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.