cramped, ppl. a.
(kræmpt, -ɪd)
[f. cramp v.]
1. Seized with cramp; suffering from the painful contraction of muscles which characterizes cramp.
| 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 15 The Limbs of some Indian Penitents, become altogether crampt and motionless for want of use. 1858 Morris Def. Guenevere 210 And when she slipp'd from off the bed, Her cramp'd feet would not hold her. 1863 Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. xx. 347 It was morning when they got out cramped and frozen. 1884 Times 30 Jan. 9/5 His cramped fingers could scarcely hold the pencil. |
2. Forcibly or unnaturally compressed and confined; constrained.
| 1678 Otway Friendship in F. 29 Ye make a worse noise than crampt Hedg-hogs. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Bks. Wks. (Bohn) III. 87 The creative power lying coiled and cramped here. 1876 F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow III. xiii. 155 The direction was written in..crooked, cramped little characters. |
3. Confined, restricted in space, extent, action, etc.
| 1796 F. Burney Lett. 25 Nov., She would go to Ireland..to see you, were her fortune less miserably cramped. 1853 Marsden Early Purit. 221 The cramped and narrow mould of a human system. 1884 Law Times' Rep. LI. 306/2 The space occupied by the schools was cramped and incapable of adequate expansion. |
b. fig. Confined or restricted in character; narrow.
| 1741–2 Richardson Pamela Introd. (ed. 2) 38 And squeeze cramp'd pity from the miser's heart? 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 465 The effects of a cramped medical education. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) II. 37 In high departments they are cramped and sterile. 1885 Dunckley in Manch. Weekly Times 21 Feb. 57/5 The Archbishop's prayer..is cramped and stiff in style. |
4. Fastened or secured with a cramp (n.2).
| 1764 Watson in Phil. Trans. LIV. 215 From the bottom of the spindle to the first cramped joints. |