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cramp
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
cramp
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cramped conditions (=without enough space)
▪ The hostages were held in extremely cramped conditions.
cramped/poky (=too small and not comfortable)
▪ She spends most days shut up in a poky flat looking after her disabled Mum.
stomach pains/cramps
▪ He complained of acute stomach pains.
writer's cramp
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
abdominal
▪ The abdominal cramps are not linked with the surgery.
▪ Other features include fever, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and, less commonly, skin rashes.
▪ It is sometimes bloody, occasionally accompanied by vomiting and abdominal cramps and much less frequently by low-grade fever.
■ NOUN
stomach
▪ Why, then, should I be moved by cold or a stomach cramp?
▪ Too much dried fruit at one time can cause stomach cramps, gas and even diarrhea.
▪ Midway through the fourth lap, I began to develop stomach cramps.
■ VERB
get
▪ I got cramp Did you take too little or too much liquid on board?
▪ I got cramp in my leg and I just couldn't get out of the chair.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Muscle cramps often happen when you exercise in hot weather.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Drinking is a safeguard, but huge amounts of water may overwhelm the gastrointestinal tract, causing cramps, bloating, nausea.
▪ He eventually received a stack of complaints about adverse reactions, including cramps, nausea, heart palpitations, and severe diarrhea.
▪ He pulled his toes backwards, hard, to ease the cramp.
▪ Later in the dressing room, everyone was suffering cramps.
▪ Leg cramps also occurred in about 5 percent of women on raloxifene compared with 1. 5 percent on placebo.
▪ The parasite, originating in human fecal matter, in turn causes diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite and cramps.
▪ Workers have attributed skin rashes, dizziness, muscle cramps and miscarriages to the chemicals and physical hardship they endure.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
up
▪ The chair must be cramped up, if not glued up, for accurate positioning.
▪ I tried to play with it and it cramped up.
■ NOUN
stomach
▪ My stomach cramped, and I threw up what I had eaten.
▪ Scan your stomach for nervousness, cramping, or nausea.
style
▪ But whatever it is, whatever it is they're saying or trying to say, it never cramps Tod's style.
▪ She knows her presence would cramp the girls' style.
▪ The fact that they were now civilians did not cramp their cynical teaching style.
▪ It looks as if it might cramp the teacher's style.
▪ And Morris's presence continued to cramp Dyson's style.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Federal guidelines are cramping the state's ability to adjust its own budget.
▪ His muscles cramped so severely he had to stop playing.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cramp

Cramp \Cramp\ (kr[a^]mp), n. [OE. crampe, craumpe; akin to D. & Sw. kramp, Dan. krampe, G. krampf (whence F. crampe), Icel. krappr strait, narrow, and to E. crimp, crumple; cf. cram. See Grape.]

  1. That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.

    A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
    --L'Estrange.

    Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear.
    --Cowper.

  2. (Masonry) A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.

  3. (Carp.) A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used for compressing the joints of framework, etc.

  4. 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.

  5. (Med.) A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg.

    The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs.
    --Sir T. More.

  6. (Med.) A paralysis of certain muscles due to excessive use; as, writer's cramp; milker's cramp, etc.

    Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp.
    --Halliwell. ``He could turn cramp bones into chess men.''
    --Dickens.

    Cramp ring, a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by one of the kings of England on Good Friday.

Cramp

Cramp \Cramp\, a. [See Cramp, n.] Knotty; difficult. [R.]

Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion.
--Coleridge.

Cramp

Cramp \Cramp\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cramped (kr[a^]mt; 215); p. pr. & vb. n. Cramping.]

  1. To compress; to restrain from free action; to confine and contract; to hinder.

    The mind my be as much cramped by too much knowledge as by ignorance.
    --Layard.

  2. To fasten or hold with, or as with, a cramp.

  3. Hence, to bind together; to unite.

    The . . . fabric of universal justic is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.
    --Burke.

  4. To form on a cramp; as, to cramp boot legs.

  5. To afflict with cramp.

    When the gout cramps my joints.
    --Ford.

    To cramp the wheels of wagon, to turn the front wheels out of line with the hind wheels, so that one of them shall be against the body of the wagon.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
cramp

"muscle contraction," late 14c., from Old French crampe, from a Frankish or other Germanic word (compare Old High German krapmhe "cramp, spasm," related to kramph "bent, crooked"), from a Proto-Germanic root forming many words for "bent, crooked," including, via French, crampon. Writer's cramp is first attested 1842 as the name of a physical affliction of the hand, in reference to translations of German medical papers (Stromeyer); also known as scrivener's palsy.

cramp

"metal bar bent at both ends," early 15c., from Middle Dutch crampe or Middle Low German krampe, both from the same Proto-Germanic root that yielded cramp (n.1). Metaphoric sense of "something that confines or hinders" first recorded 1719.

cramp

"to contract" (of muscles), early 15c., from cramp (n.1). Related: Cramped; cramping.\n

cramp

"to bend or twist," early 14c., from cramp (n.2) and Old French crampir. Later "compress forcibly" (1550s), and, figuratively, "to restrict" (1620s). Related: Cramped; cramping.

Wiktionary
cramp

n. 1 A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled. 2 That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance. 3 A clamp for carpentry or masonry. 4 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. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollable. 2 (context transitive English) To prohibit movement or expression. 3 (context transitive English) To restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp. 4 To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp. 5 (context by extension English) To bind together; to unite. 6 To form on a cramp.

WordNet
cramp
  1. n. a painful and involuntary muscular contraction [syn: spasm, muscle spasm]

  2. a clamp for holding pieces of wood together while they are glued

  3. a strip of metal with ends bent at right angles; used to hold masonry together [syn: cramp iron]

cramp
  1. v. secure with a cramp; "cramp the wood"

  2. prevent the progress or free movement of; "He was hampered in his efforts by the bad weather"; "the imperilist nation wanted to strangle the free trade between the two small countries" [syn: hamper, halter, strangle]

Wikipedia
Cramp

A cramp is a sudden, involuntary muscle contraction or over-shortening; while generally temporary and non-damaging, they can cause mild-to-excruciating pain, and a paralysis-like immobility of the affected muscle(s). Onset is usually sudden, and it resolves on its own over a period of several seconds, minutes, or hours. Cramps may occur in a skeletal muscle or smooth muscle. Skeletal muscle cramps may be caused by muscle fatigue or a lack of electrolytes (e.g., low sodium, low potassium, or low magnesium). Cramps of smooth muscle may be due to menstruation or gastroenteritis.

Cramp (disambiguation)

A cramp is a sudden, involuntary muscle contraction, often temporarily painful and paralysing.

Cramp or cramps may also refer to:

  • Cramp (heraldry), a hooked device in German heraldry
  • The Cramps, a garage punk band
  • Cramp & Co., built many schools etc. in Philadelphia in the 20th century
  • William Cramp & Sons, built many ships in Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
People
  • Charlie Cramp (1876–1933), British trade unionist
  • Stanley Cramp (1913–1987), British ornithologist
  • Rosemary Cramp (1926– ), British archaeologist
  • Sid Cramp, Australian politician

Usage examples of "cramp".

Disappointed with the cramped accommodations available to him this time at the Hotel de Valois, Adams changed lodgings, moving to the Hotel du Roi on the Place du Carrousel, between the Palais Royal and the Quai du Louvre, which was to remain his headquarters.

Not paying attention to the cramped conditions, Arian stood and the back of his head smacked against the edge of a ceiling beam.

He went down to his cabin to take care of that, making his way with difficulty through the narrow, cramped, and unfamiliar belowdecks spaces, jammed everywhere as they were with materiel and instruments.

At that Captain Parker gave his parole, as did Sir Arthur, and I sent for Tommy Bickford to help make them as comfortable as was possible in our cramped quarters.

But in the very cramped quarters aboard the schooner he was using to supervise the landing of his troops at Bayou Bienvenu, his movements had become downright cautious.

Looking down at the cramped writing covering the contract, Brenn decided his reservations were groundless.

It was hardly more than a surfboard dressed up with a mast, rudder, centerboard, and a cramped little cockpit into which you could stick your feet as you sat on the open deck a few inches above the water.

With nothing better to do at that moment, and needing to escape the cramped confines of their command post carrier, Dixon and Cerro had left those tracks, leaving captains and sergeants to monitor the incoming status reports.

The cramped space had a stone floor, a small set of cupboards, and a narrow counter crowded with a hot plate, an ancient electric vat coffeepot - the same kind I used for catered events - and a cookie jar in the shape of the Kremlin.

The nest was just a barrel-wart, up above the signal crosstree, a somewhat cramped place for a man to be.

Aft of control in the cramped radio and ESM rooms four Chinese-speaking NSA cryptologists listened through headsets to communications from the Chinese mainland surrounding the ship.

Those cutters might be built to stand the kind of treatment he was giving his, but it made my stomach cramp to hear the shocks bottom on the landing gear.

I stretched my poor cramped limbs as Debs pulled out her radio to summon our friends on the Miami Beach police force.

Max sniffed every inch of the cramped room, including an indignant cat, a shy poodle, and a terrified yellow canary in a birdcage, all of whom were already there with their owners when Mitchell and Kate arrived.

In these two or three narrow, cramped streets the appearance of a Rolls Roy ce would cause no comment, but moving at anything more than a majestic footpace called for wings, which would be conspicuous.