From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcrampcramp1 /kræmp/ noun 1 [countable, uncountable]MI a severe pain that you get in part of your body when a muscle becomes too tight, making it difficult for you to move that part of your body Several players were suffering from cramp. muscle crampshave/get (a) cramp One of the swimmers got cramp and had to drop out of the race. → writer's cramp2 → (stomach) cramps
Examples from the Corpus
cramp• The parasite, originating in human fecal matter, in turn causes diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite and cramps.• Drinking is a safeguard, but huge amounts of water may overwhelm the gastrointestinal tract, causing cramps, bloating, nausea.• He eventually received a stack of complaints about adverse reactions, including cramps, nausea, heart palpitations, and severe diarrhea.• Leg cramps also occurred in about 5 percent of women on raloxifene compared with 1. 5 percent on placebo.• Workers have attributed skin rashes, dizziness, muscle cramps and miscarriages to the chemicals and physical hardship they endure.• Muscle cramps often happen when you exercise in hot weather.• Later in the dressing room, everyone was suffering cramps.• He pulled his toes backwards, hard, to ease the cramp.have/get (a) cramp• I got cramp Did you take too little or too much liquid on board?• I got cramp in my leg and I just couldn't get out of the chair.• Yet the more she sipped the more sick she felt; and then she began to have a cramp in her stomach.crampcramp2 verb 1 PREVENT[transitive] to prevent the development of someone or something SYN hinder, restrict Stricter anti-pollution laws may cramp economic growth.2 → cramp somebody’s style3 [intransitive, transitive] (also cramp up) to get or cause cramp in a muscle He cramped in the last 200 metres of the race. Sitting still for so long had cramped her muscles.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
cramp• His muscles cramped so severely he had to stop playing.• Federal guidelines are cramping the state's ability to adjust its own budget.Origin cramp1 (1300-1400) Old French crampe, perhaps from Low German krampe; → CRAMP2 cramp2 (1500-1600) Partly from → CRAMP1; partly from cramp “tool for holding things together” ((14-21 centuries)), from Low German krampe “hook” 