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Pang vs Cramp - What's the difference?

pang | cramp |

As a noun cramp is

a painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled.

As a verb cramp is

(of a muscle) to contract painfully and uncontrollably.

pang

English

(Webster 1913)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (often, pluralized) paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; sudden and transitory agony; throe
  • * 1591 , , Henry VI, Part II , act 3, sc. 3,
    • See, how the pangs of death do make him grin!
  • * 1888 , , "The Nightingale and the Rose" in The Happy Prince and Other Tales ,
    • So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her.
  • (often, pluralized) A sharp, sudden feeling of a mental or emotional nature, as of joy or sorrow
  • * 1867 , , The Guardian Angel , ch. 7,
    • He was startled with a piece of information which gave him such an exquisite pang of delight that he could hardly keep the usual quiet of his demeanor.

    Related terms

    * birth pangs * pang of conscience

    Verb

  • to torment; to torture; to cause to have great pain or suffering
  • * 1918 , , "On Unanswering Letters" in Mince Pie ,
    • It panged him so to say good-bye when he had to leave.

    External links

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    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

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