1
as in incapacitates
to cause severe or permanent injury to
the car crash may have crippled two people for life
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in injures
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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in paralyzes
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 cripples
The author takes an overnight Amtrak journey instead of a flight to Washington as the government shutdown cripples Atlanta’s airport.
—
Bill Barrow, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2026
These pressures could produce a tsunami that fractures the state’s fiscal foundation, self-inflicts a crisis ultimately demanding drastic cuts, and cripples its competitiveness.
—Andrew Rein, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026
Scarface and friends attack the lab, and break out the kryptonite that cripples El and Kali.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
Second, this ambiguity around responsibility cripples an organization’s ability to respond effectively.
—Nelson Lim, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2025
Drones allow aggressors to target critical infrastructure that cripples a defender’s economy at low cost and with high accuracy.
—Omar Al-Ubaydli, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2025
This inefficiency is invisible during small-scale development tests but completely cripples an application’s performance under the heavy load of a real production environment.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
An ongoing alien siege cripples the world’s militaries, infrastructure, and communication centers but Will can run Premiere Pro, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and remote control a Tesla all at the same time.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2025
Bill Barrow, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2026
These pressures could produce a tsunami that fractures the state’s fiscal foundation, self-inflicts a crisis ultimately demanding drastic cuts, and cripples its competitiveness.
—Andrew Rein, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026
Scarface and friends attack the lab, and break out the kryptonite that cripples El and Kali.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
Second, this ambiguity around responsibility cripples an organization’s ability to respond effectively.
—Nelson Lim, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2025
Drones allow aggressors to target critical infrastructure that cripples a defender’s economy at low cost and with high accuracy.
—Omar Al-Ubaydli, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2025
This inefficiency is invisible during small-scale development tests but completely cripples an application’s performance under the heavy load of a real production environment.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
An ongoing alien siege cripples the world’s militaries, infrastructure, and communication centers but Will can run Premiere Pro, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and remote control a Tesla all at the same time.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cripples
Verb
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Lorenzo confronts and incapacitates Pepe, Sonia’s main ally, before facing Sonia herself.—
Isabella Wandermurem,
Time,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
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This storyline later appeared in the second season of Girls, as Dunham’s character Hannah is overwhelmed with the anxiety of writing a novel and similarly injures herself.—
Caitlin Huston,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Apr. 2026
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In her desperation to ask Val for a job on the new sitcom, Sharon falls and injures herself.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
30 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In fact, too much choice often paralyzes decision-making.—
David Meade,
Forbes.com,
14 May 2026
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Once an octopus ambushes and bites its prey, the venom in its saliva paralyzes the prey, allowing the octopus to consume it.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Recently, researchers in Germany developed a chain-launching drone interceptor that disables UAVs by tangling their spinning rotors midair.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
8 May 2026
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Imagining an eternity of this, Creasy disables his car’s braking system and drives into a concrete pylon.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
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During photosynthesis, cyanobacteria release oxygen, which quickly damages hydrogenase enzymes responsible for hydrogen production.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
27 May 2026
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If a boat comes loose and damages other property, uninsured owners may be liable.—
Orlando Sentinel Staff,
The Orlando Sentinel,
24 May 2026
Verb
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Senator Cortese deserves credit for taking on the real and persistent inequity posed by the divide between basic and non-basic aid districts, and which genuinely undermines the principle that every student deserves the same quality education.—
Mercury News Editorial Board,
Mercury News,
27 May 2026
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To some scholars of Christianity, such framing undermines some of Jesus' core ethical teachings.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
27 May 2026
Verb
-
No sadness mars the purity of its paranoia.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
22 Mar. 2026
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However, an earnestness mars most of the proceedings.—
Murtada Elfadl,
Variety,
20 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Organizations often assume that leaders working across contexts bring less focus and that divided attention weakens effectiveness.—
Henrik Totterman,
Forbes.com,
24 May 2026
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Gravity weakens with the square of the distance between the two, so a star that was on the far side of the Milky Way from the edge-on collision point would feel a much less powerful gravitational attraction than a star on the near side would.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
22 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cripples.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cripples. Accessed 30 May. 2026.
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