crutch
/ˈkɹʌt͡ʃ/
crutch noun: a device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
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Noun
crutch (plural crutches)
- A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
- He walked on crutches for a month until the cast was removed from his leg.
- I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Something or someone that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthy dependency; a prop.
- Alcohol became a crutch to help him through the long nights; eventually it killed him.
- Rhyme[…]is […] at best a crutch that lifts the weak alone.1710, Edmund Smith, A poem on the death of Mr. John Philips
- A crotch; the area of body where the legs fork from the trunk.
- A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.
- A knee, or piece of knee timber.
- A forked stanchion or post; a crotch.
- An improvised device, usually made from a piece of cardboard, to hold the last end of a joint.
Verb
crutch (third-person singular simple present crutches, present participle crutching, simple past and past participle crutched)
- To support on crutches; to prop up.
- [I'll] haſten Og and Doeg to rehearſe, / Tvvo Fools that Crutch their Feeble Senſe on Verſe; / VVho by my Muſe to all ſucceeding times, / Shall live in ſpight of their ovvn Dogrell Rhimes.1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 13
- To move on crutches.
- To shear the hindquarters of a sheep; to dag.
- After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money.2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal
- to stir with a crutch.
crutch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
crutch in Hindi
- device to assist in motion as a cane
- बैसाखी baisākhī
crutch in Tamil
- ஊன்றுகோல்
crutch in Urdu
- device to assist in motion as a cane
- بیساکھی baisākhī
crutch in Telugu
- crutch
- చంకకాలు caṅkakālu
More languagesFewer languages
- crutch in Malayalam
- മുടന്തന്മാരുടെ വടി, താങ്ങ്, താങ്ങുവടി
- crutch in Kannada
- ಊರುಗೋಲು, ಓಡಾಡಲು ಆಧಾರವಾದ ಕೋಲು, ಆಸರೆ, ಆಧಾರ
- crutch in Tagalog
- saklay, muleta
- crutch in Arabic
- عُكَّاز ʕukkāz, عُكَّازَة ʕukkāza
- crutch in Indonesian
- kruk
- crutch in Persian
- عصا 'asâ
- crutch in Thai
- ไม้เท้า mái-táao, ไม้ยัน máai-yan, ไม้ยันรักแร้ máai-yan-rák-rɛ́ɛ
- crutch in Vietnamese
- nạng
- crutch in Myanmar
- ချိုင်းထောက် hkyuing:htauk
Examples of crutch in a sentence
- Dan won't be able to come to the party, since he broke his leg last week and is now on crutches.
- To compensate for his broken leg, Gary uses crutches.
- “Yeah, I'm feening for some fresh air,” Finn said, using his crutches to get to his feet.
Forms of crutch
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | crutches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | crutches |
| present participle | crutching |
| past participle | crutched |
| past | crutched |
Origin of crutch
From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.
Words formed from crutch
Phrases with crutch
Words that rhyme with crutch
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about crutch
- What does crutch mean?
- Crutch means a device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
- What is crutch in Hindi?
- Crutch in Hindi is बैसाखी (baisākhī). See Crutch meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is crutch?
- Crutch can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce crutch?
- Crutch is pronounced /ˈkɹʌt͡ʃ/.
- What is the plural of crutch?
- The plural of crutch is crutches.
Words near crutch in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: crutch (page history and authors); crutch (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చంకకాలు (Telugu) (page history and authors); crutch (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crutch (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crutch.wav.
Cite this entry: “crutch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crutch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.