1
as in to incapacitate
to cause severe or permanent injury to
the car crash may have crippled two people for life
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2
as in to injure
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of
the collision so severely crippled the ship that it had to be towed into port
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3
as in to paralyze
to render powerless, ineffective, or unable to move
a wave of strikes crippled that nation's steel industry
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cripple
That crippled Huawei’s smartphone brand, once one of the world’s biggest.
—
Joe McDonald, ajc, 9 Mar. 2023
Soon after, sanctions crippled the banking sector, food prices soared, and hospitals filled with malnourished children.
—Christina Goldbaum, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2023
Soon after, sanctions crippled the banking sector, food prices soared and hospitals filled with malnourished children.
—Yaqoob Akbary Kiana Hayeri, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2023
If nothing is done, this could cripple the ISS.
—Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jane Harman, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022
See All Example Sentences for cripple
Joe McDonald, ajc, 9 Mar. 2023
Soon after, sanctions crippled the banking sector, food prices soared, and hospitals filled with malnourished children.
—Christina Goldbaum, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2023
Soon after, sanctions crippled the banking sector, food prices soared and hospitals filled with malnourished children.
—Yaqoob Akbary Kiana Hayeri, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2023
If nothing is done, this could cripple the ISS.
—Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jane Harman, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022
See All Example Sentences for cripple
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cripple
Verb
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Poison—the craft held an endless array of ways to stop a heart, and if studied well, a myriad of tinctures to incapacitate, dull, and deceive an enemy.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
EW.com,
20 Feb. 2025
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Research has shown that lithium-ion battery fires produce higher levels of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide which can incapacitate a person.—
John Orlando,
New York Daily News,
16 Feb. 2025
Verb
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None of the 60 employees inside SPS Technologies, which manufactures fasteners mainly for the aerospace industry, was injured after explosions set off the fire.—
Saleen Martin,
USA TODAY,
20 Feb. 2025
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The small explosion by the device, which appeared to be a pipe filled with gunpowder, injured two people in the hall in Wakayama, a port city south of Osaka.—
Martin Fackler,
New York Times,
19 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Leaders who excel at leading through crisis understand the importance of focusing on what is actionable rather than being paralyzed by uncertainty.—
Scott Hutcheson,
Forbes,
19 Feb. 2025
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And yet much like the Democrats paralyzed by the chaos at home, the last three days have exceeded their worst nightmares.—
Zachary Basu,
Axios,
15 Feb. 2025
Verb
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All of these resources are active and available on the Radeon RX 9070 XT, but eight of the 64 compute units are disabled on the Radeon RX 9070, reducing its core counts to 3,584 shaders, 224 TMUs, 112 AI accelerators, and 56 ray accelerators.—
Michael Justin Allen Sexton,
PCMAG,
28 Feb. 2025
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Peak Drive Online ordering has been temporarily disabled for Del Taco's Colorado locations.—
Gabe Hauari,
USA TODAY,
28 Feb. 2025
Verb
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The Hoover Desk During former President Herbert Hoover's presidency in 1929, a fire severely damaged the West Wing of the White House, including the Oval Office.—
Greta Cross,
USA TODAY,
22 Feb. 2025
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Despite initially being told his bone had been damaged and his arm would probably need to be amputated, doctors managed to save it.—
Becca Longmire,
People.com,
21 Feb. 2025
Verb
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There are eight issues that have begun to undermine the stock market's shaky support.—
John S. Tobey,
Forbes,
1 Mar. 2025
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Doing so would have undermined his credibility, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority.—
Dakin Andone,
CNN,
28 Feb. 2025
Verb
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He had been wounded last summer, not far from the Russian border in northeastern Ukraine, when a blast from a grenade fractured his right shoulder blade, a bullet hit him just below his right collarbone, another tore through his left shoulder, and a third broke three ribs.—
Michael Holtz,
The New Yorker,
28 Feb. 2025
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Douglas was sent to prison in 1985 after he and three other men were convicted for bursting into the East New York home of a drug dealer and killing three and wounding seven in a case that grabbed headlines for its horrific details.—
Graham Rayman,
New York Daily News,
27 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Audio issues occasionally marred the broadcast, including brief interruptions of Fonda’s speech.—
Jake Coyle,
Orlando Sentinel,
24 Feb. 2025
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But a New York Times analysis of the $55 billion in savings claimed by DOGE found that the math is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes.—
Talmon Joseph Smith,
New York Times,
22 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cripple.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cripple. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.
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