Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use limp in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun, adjective

Limp means to walk lamely, as if favoring one leg. Example: “The bomber limped home on one engine.”

Examples of limp by meaning

verbTo travel with a malfunctioning system of propulsion.

  • The bomber limped home on one engine.

verbTo move or proceed irregularly.

  • The business limped through the recession
  • And so we limped along for another month or two, pretending we still had a reason to be together.2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 121

nounAn irregular, jerky or awkward gait.

  • She walks with a limp.

adjectiveLacking stiffness; floppy, flimsy.

  • a limp rope

adjectiveSoft; weak, especially physically.

  • Another line-out was stolen, and when the ball was sent left Clerc stepped and spun through limp challenges from Wilkinson, Chris Ashton and Foden to dive over and make it 11-0.2011 October 8, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2025

More sentences with limp

  • She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.From the entry dead
  • He's just putting on that limp -- his leg's actually fine.From the entry put on
  • With her aching back and pronounced limp, she was feeling particularly seedy today.From the entry seedy
  • The flag was hanging limp all day, until a flutter made it stand up and ripple for a few seconds.From the entry flutter
  • I limped painfully down the stairs.From the entry painfully
  • He languidly waved his limp wrist, glad to see us, but not wanting to expend the energy to let us know that.From the entry languidly
  • Our car broke down and we didn't have any tools but Jim MacGyvered it with some toenail clippers and we were able to limp to the service station.From the entry macgyver
  • Fusionism, Hammer said, is “inherently effete, limp, and, as Hillsdale College’s David Azerrad might say, unmasculine.”2021 December 1, David French, “The New Right’s Strange and Dangerous Cult of Toughness”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on…. From the entry unmasculine
  • Next to arrive was Aunt Helena, all apuff from limping over from the library.2019, Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, →ISBN, page 345. From the entry apuff
  • He needed the handrail, and he limped step by step, but he ascended at his full height.2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 98. From the entry starch
  • A car that feels limp and soggy usually has a suspension defect that requires attention.2013, Robert Foskett, Alfa Romeo 916 GTV and Spider: The Complete Story. From the entry rollbar
  • She fans flies away from the limp child in her lap.2012 October 30, Moira Young, Rebel Heart, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 55. From the entry boarback
  • She struggled up on her feet, limping sloggingly, leg throbbing, to the door, searching for Steve.2011, Susan Katrinka Butler, Her Education, page 300. From the entry sloggingly
  • The soldiers' limp bodies tumbled to the water with mighty splashes.2010, Hachette Assorted Authors, Scoundrels, Monsters, and Special Circumstances: Orbit October-December 2010, Orbit, →ISBN. From the entry twock
  • For the limp movie, Matthau and Jack Lemmon did little to enliven their respective disagreeability.2008 January 13, Thomas Vinciguerra, “A Pig and a Priss in Their Prime (Time)”, in New York Times. From the entry disagreeability
  • He limps slowly, his right leg below the knee as knotty and bulbed as an old root.2008 February 21, Michael Wilson, “Home in Box Had Its Problems; Alternative Does, Too”, in New York Times. From the entry bulbed
  • A nonexecuting program is the limp puppet without a hand, an empty shell.1998, David Hillel Gelernter, Machine beauty: elegance and the heart of technology. From the entry nonexecuting
  • You seem to have forgotten that you are responsible for the condition that causes me to limp.”1996, Dale Maharidge, quoting Donald Northcross, “Progressives”, in The Coming White Minority: California’s Eruptions and America’s…. From the entry jimminy cricket
  • The bald patch on his hip was hairing over and he no longer limped.1992, Hugh Ruppersburg, Georgia Voices: Fiction, page 492. From the entry hair
  • He felt sickly limp but relieved, thankful for his good health.1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, published 1968, Chapter , p. 185. From the entry sickly
  • She picked up the limp sprout and squeezed her thumb up its tiny stalk.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC. From the entry ooze
  • Perhaps it really was time the British limped out of Malaya.1958, Anthony Burgess, chapter 6, in The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), London: William Heinemann, published 1979, →ISBN…. From the entry saddle
  • Calling a truce and limping back under our own roof would not be peace.1947, To you - Volumes 14-16, page 31. From the entry whip the cat
  • Or rather, he obliged Miguen to do so, for the limping sannup could not pursue the quarry.1941, Marguerite Allis, Not Without Peril, G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 231. From the entry sannup
  • He looked to see the secretary, vised and crackled in those arms, drop limp and senseless.1904, The Cambrian - Volume 24, page 166. From the entry vise
  • Limp Bizkit bounced back on Wednesday (Sept. 29) with their first new song in almost seven years, the swaggerific "Dad Vibes."2021 September 30, Gil Kaufman, “Limp Bizkit Serve Up Swaggy 'Dad Vibes' on First New Song in Seven Years”, in Billboard, Cincinnati…. From the entry swaggerific
  • I saw them before they saw me so I doubletapped them both and they went down fast and limp.2015 March 24, J Bartell, Ginger Marin, The 231 Club: My Ten Year Journey From Therapist to CIA Courier and Sanctioned Kills - A True…. From the entry doubletap
  • I was pegging a hack when the horse started limping.2014, Robert Newman, The Case of the Somerville Secret. From the entry peg
  • The pencil in my hand was limp between my fingers and I couldn't focus on the chicken scratch on the pages.2014, A. Meredith Walters, Light in the Shadows, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 25. From the entry chicken scratch
  • Going limp and lying still works well for many animals, but a few species deserve Academy Awards for their death-feigning skills.2009, Christina Wilsdon, Animal Defenses, page 35. From the entry Academy Award
  • Over the next few laps his pained expression slowly melted, although he still shuffled with a slight limp.2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 110. From the entry melt
  • He will almost certainly get a limp slap on the wrist and mummy and daddy will pay the increased insurance premiums.2003 March 28, Rocky Frisco, “Very Close Shave”, in alt.fan.pratchett (Usenet), archived from the original on 03 Jun 2026. From the entry wristie
  • He saw a jutka coming in his direction, the horse limping along under the weight of the carriage.2002, R. K. Narayan, The World of Malgudi, page 62. From the entry jutka
  • A real bargain." Afterwards, you'd feel you'd been done a favour to, and obligingly walk off with a limp.2001, Roy Holland, C. H. Muller, Flakes of Dark and Light: Tales from Southern Africa and Elsewhere, page 110. From the entry cheap at half the price

Meaning of limp

  1. verb To walk lamely, as if favoring one leg.
  2. verb To travel with a malfunctioning system of propulsion.
  3. verb To move or proceed irregularly.

Full definition of limp

Questions about limp in a sentence

How do you use limp in a sentence?
Limp is used as a verb, noun and adjective. For example: “The bomber limped home on one engine.”
What is a short sentence with limp?
“a limp rope”
What does limp mean?
Limp means to walk lamely, as if favoring one leg.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: limp (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use limp in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/limp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.