From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcrutchcrutch /krʌtʃ/ noun [countable] 1 
[usually plural]MH one of a pair of long sticks that you put under your arms to help you walk when you have hurt your legon crutches (=using crutches) I was on crutches for three months after the operation.2 HELPsomething that gives someone support or help, especially something that is not really good for them As things got worse at work, he began to use alcohol as a crutch.3 British EnglishHBH the part of your body between the tops of your legs SYN crotch
[usually plural]MH one of a pair of long sticks that you put under your arms to help you walk when you have hurt your legon crutches (=using crutches) I was on crutches for three months after the operation.2 HELPsomething that gives someone support or help, especially something that is not really good for them As things got worse at work, he began to use alcohol as a crutch.3 British EnglishHBH the part of your body between the tops of your legs SYN crotchExamples from the Corpus
crutch• Alcoholics use drinking as a crutch.• With a shout, Silver threw his crutch through the air.• It took three years of rehabilitation, but Meidl once again walked without the aid of crutches.• Hospital officials cleaned and bandaged his wound and sent him home with a pair of crutches, Ross said.• Volunteers, sometimes wearing blue lapel pins in the shape of crutches, raised money in numerous and often ingenious ways.• He came down to Highbury on crutches, so grave was the extent of his injury.• Some came in wheelchairs or on crutches.• He put his hand down to the crutch of the camiknickers and he fumbled with the little buttons.on crutches• Kabul, the capital, is full of one-legged beggars on crutches who stepped in the wrong place.• She emerged on crutches, looking like a veteran.• He came down to Highbury on crutches, so grave was the extent of his injury.• Cath from T-shirts is on crutches after treading barefoot on broken glass trying to break up a skinhead brawl.• Some came in wheelchairs or on crutches.• In either case Kasper could only have got there, like many of the top racers, on crutches.• Dennis left the locker room on crutches , his knee heavily bandaged.• When he left Boston for his home outside Atlanta Thursday on crutches following double knee surgery, reasonable observation argued otherwise.• One year, thanks to a knee injury, I went on crutches.Origin crutch Old English crycc 