From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcripplecripple1 ●○○ verb [transitive] 1 MIINJURE old-fashioned to hurt someone badly so that they cannot walk properly SYN disable She was crippled in a car accident.2 DAMAGEto damage something badly so that it no longer works or is no longer effective Industry is being crippled by high interest rates. —crippled adjective landing the crippled plane→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
cripple• There's only one way you can cripple a bad scientist, and that's to demonstrate how bad his science is.• Thus, under its definitions, no one is crippled and no one is handicapped in this society.• Asia's economy has been crippled by inflation.• The accident crippled her for life.• Richard was crippled in the bombing of 1984, and had been in a wheelchair ever since.• Our tendency to reward failure has literally crippled our efforts to help the poor.• The driver, who had been taking drugs, crippled the young woman for life.cripplecrip‧ple2 /ˈkrɪpəl/ noun [countable] 1 MIINJURE old-fashioned someone who is unable to walk properly because their legs are damaged or injured, now considered offensive → disabled2 → emotional crippleExamples from the Corpus
cripple• He says it's sad that the thieves are so cowardly that they can't face a cripple.• He stood in the darkroom with another trainee, Dale Fitzke, a cripple.• She was herself a cripple, constantly in need of the sort of attention her husband had regularly given her in the evenings.• But no - for I am not a cripple, I have no debility, and something other than myself is doing this.• Which of course reminds me of the blind man and cripple riding happily together across our green countryside on that rickety train.• Billy went on weeping as he contemplated the cripples and their boss.• But against that was the sudden action of the cripple at the bridge.• The cripple choked and pushed the plate away.Origin cripple1 Old English crypel 