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Entry 12 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Cramp

/(krămp)/ · IPA /kɹæmp/
01 n. That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.
  1. 1.
    That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.
    “A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.” — L'Estrange.
    “Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear.” — Cowper.
  2. 2.
    A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.(Masonry)
  3. 3.
    A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used for compressing the joints of framework, etc.(Carp.)
  4. 4.
    A piece of wood having a curve corresponding to that of the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape.
  5. 5.
    A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg.(Med.)
    “The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.” — Sir T. More.
  6. 6.
    A paralysis of certain muscles due to excessive use; as, writer's cramp; milker's cramp, etc.(Med.)
Phrases & compounds
Cramp bone — the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp.
Cramp ring — a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by one of the kings of England on Good Friday.
02 v. t. To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and contract; to hinder.
imp. & p. p. Cramped; p. pr. & vb. n. Cramping
  1. 1.
    To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and contract; to hinder.
    “The mind my be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance.” — Layard.
  2. 2.
    To fasten or hold with, or as with, a cramp.
  3. 3.
    to bind together; to unite.
    “The . . . fabric of universal justic is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.” — Burke.
  4. 4.
    To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.
  5. 5.
    To afflict with cramp.
    “When the gout cramps my joints.” — Ford.
Phrases & compounds
To cramp the wheels of wagon — to turn the front wheels out of line with the hind wheels, so that one of them shall be against the body of the wagon.
03 a. Knotty; difficult.
  1. 1.
    Knotty; difficult.[R.]
    “Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion.” — Coleridge.