What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Cramp vs Narrow - What's the difference?

cramp | narrow |

In intransitive terms the difference between cramp and narrow

is that cramp is (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably while narrow is to get narrower.

In transitive terms the difference between cramp and narrow

is that cramp is to restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp while narrow is to reduce in width or extent; to contract.

As an adjective narrow is

having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.

cramp

English

(wikipedia cramp)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled.
  • * Sir T. More
    • The cramp , divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.
  • That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.
  • * L'Estrange
    • A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
  • * Cowper
    • crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear
  • A clamp for carpentry or masonry.
  • 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.

    • Derived terms

    * brain cramp * cramp ring * writer's cramp

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably.
  • To prohibit movement or expression.
    • You're cramping my style.
  • * Layard
    • The mind may be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance.
  • To restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp.
    • You're going to need to cramp the wheels on this hill.
  • * Ford
    • when the gout cramps my joints
  • To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp.
  • (by extension) To bind together; to unite.
  • * Burke
    • The fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
  • To form on a cramp.
    • to cramp boot legs

    References

    * ----

    narrow

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=14 citation , passage=Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.}}
  • Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
  • * Bishop Wilkins
    • The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.
  • (figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.
  • Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted.
    • a narrow''' mind; '''narrow views
  • * Macaulay
    • a narrow understanding
  • Having a small margin or degree.
    • The Republicans won by a narrow majority.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs
    • , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia, work=BBC Sport citation , passage=As in their narrow defeat of Argentina last week, England were indisciplined at the breakdown, and if Georgian fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili had remembered his kicking boots, Johnson's side might have been behind at half-time.}}
  • (dated) Limited as to means; straitened; pinching.
    • narrow circumstances
  • Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
  • * Smalridge
    • a very narrow and stinted charity
  • Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
  • * Milton
    • But first with narrow search I must walk round / This garden, and no corner leave unspied.
  • (phonetics) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.

    • Antonyms

    * wide * broad

    Derived terms

    * narrowboat, narrow boat * narrow-minded * narrowness

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To reduce in width or extent; to contract.
    • We need to narrow the search.
  • To get narrower.
    • The road narrows .
  • (knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
    • Synonyms
    * taper

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, in the plural) A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
    • the Narrows of New York harbor
  • * Gladstone
    • Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow .
    1000 English basic words