cramp
A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlledA painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction.
Recorded UK: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
» My house is small and cramped.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(countable, uncountable)A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled; (sometimes) a similar pain even without noticeable contraction.
He retired hurt at 31 due to a leg cramp.
August 1534, Margaret Roper (or Thomas More in her name), letter to Alice Alington the cramp also that divers nights gripeth him in his legs.
Krampf
спазмspazm, су́дорогаsúdoroga
судо́маsudóma
(countable, uncountable)That which confines or contracts.
(countable, uncountable)A clamp for carpentry or masonry.
(countable, uncountable)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.
- a strip of metal with ends bent at right angles; used to hold masonry together
- a clamp for holding pieces of wood together while they are glued
- a painful and involuntary muscular contraction
Examples
56 sentencesMy house is small and cramped.
Tom had a cramp in his leg.
deTom hatte einen Krampf in seinem Bein. — Dani6187
It's going to be a little cramped.
I have a cramp in my leg.
I got a cramp in my leg while swimming.
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramFrom Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramp”), from Proto-West Germanic *krampu, from Proto-Germanic *krampō (“cramp, clasp”). Distant relative of English crop.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: crampsSynonyms
6 synonyms- a strip of metal with ends bent at right angles; used to hold masonry together:cramp iron
- a painful and involuntary muscular contraction:spasmmuscle spasm
Word family
15 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.