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Grapple vs Cripple - What's the difference?

grapple | cripple |

As verbs the difference between grapple and cripple

is that grapple is to seize something and hold it firmly while cripple is to make someone a cripple; to cause someone to get a physical disability.

As nouns the difference between grapple and cripple

is that grapple is a device consisting of iron claws, attached to the end of a rope, used for grasping and holding an enemy ship prior to boarding; a grapnel or grappling iron while cripple is a person who has severely impaired physical abilities because of deformation, injury, or amputation of parts of the body.

As an adjective cripple is

crippled.

grapple

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (see below). More at (l).

Verb

(grappl)
  • To seize something and hold it firmly.
  • (figuratively) to ponder and intensely evaluate a problem; normally used with "with".
  • * to grapple''' with one's '''conscience
  • To use a grapple.
  • To wrestle or tussle.
  • To fasten, as with a grapple; to fix; to join indissolubly.
  • * Hakluyt
  • The gallies were grappled to the Centurion.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . More at (l).

    Noun

  • (nautical) A device consisting of iron claws, attached to the end of a rope, used for grasping and holding an enemy ship prior to boarding; a grapnel or grappling iron.
  • (uncountable) The act of grappling.
  • A close hand-to-hand struggle.
  • cripple

    Alternative forms

    * (dialectal)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Crippled.
  • * 1599 — , iv 1
  • And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night, who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp so tediously away.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a person who has severely impaired physical abilities because of deformation, injury, or amputation of parts of the body.
  • He returned from war a cripple .
  • * Dryden
  • I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine.
  • A shortened wooden stud or brace used to construct the portion of a wall above a door or above and below a window.
  • scrapple.
  • Synonyms

    * disabled person

    Derived terms

    * emotional cripple

    Verb

    (crippl)
  • to make someone a cripple; to cause someone to get a physical disability
  • The car bomb crippled five passers-by.
  • (figuratively) to damage seriously; to destroy
  • My ambitions were crippled by a lack of money.
  • to release a product (especially a computer program) with reduced functionality, in some cases, making the item essentially worthless.
  • The word processor was released in a crippled demonstration version that did not allow you to save.

    See also

    * disfigurement * lame * paralysis * disability

    Anagrams

    *