▪ I. crutch, n.
(krʌtʃ)
Forms: 1 crycc(e, 3–5 crucche (ü), 5–6 cruche, crutche, 7– crutch; β. 6 crooch(e, 6– crotch; γ. 5–6 crouche, crowch(e, 6 croutch, 6–7 crouch.
[OE. crycc, (acc. crycce) fem., a common Teutonic word = *OLG. krukkja (whence MDu. crucke, Du. kruk, MLG. krucke, krocke, LG. krukke, krück), OHG. chruckja, chrucha (MHG. kruche, krucke, Ger. krücke), ON. krykkja (Norw. krykkja, OSw. krykkia, Da. krykke):—OTeut. krukjâ-, krukjôn- f. ablaut stem kruk- of kreuk- to bend. The ME. change of y (y) to ŭ, is found also in clutch, much, trust. The phonology of the variants is obscure.
For the crotch form, cf. crotch, as a separate word. Cruche may be merely a variant spelling, but it also occurs as a variant of croche n. q.v. Crooch(e may belong to crotch or to crouch: the latter was perh. influenced in form by crouch v., but it may represent an early lengthening of the u in cruche, crucche, with later diphthongization.]
1. a. A staff for a lame or infirm person to lean upon in walking; now a staff with a cross-piece at the top to fit under the armpit (usually a pair of crutches).
| c 900 Bæda's Hist. iv. xxx[i]. (1891) 380 Mid his crycce hine wreðiᵹende. c 1205 Lay. 19482 Vder þe lome mon..he wænde mid his crucche us adun þrucche. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 81 Þan wole no þing us availe but oure bedis and our crucche [rime myche]. c 1440 Sir Gowther 673 We make..Crokyd here cruches for-sake. 1570 Levins Manip. 182 A crutche, grallus. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 373 Time goes on crutches, till Loue haue all his rites. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 161 He could not Dance without one Crutch in his Hand. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 103 ¶11, I..gave him a new Pair of Crutches. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 30 He could walk with great ease, and without crutches. 1866 R. M. Ballantyne Shift. Winds xvi. (1181) 165 He walked with a crutch. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 211/1 Crotche for a lame man, potence. 1573 Tusser Husb. lx. (1878) 138 Mans age deuided here ye haue..The next [seven yeers: 71–77], get chaire and crotches to stay. |
| γ c 1440 York Myst. xxv. 376 My man, ryse and caste þe cruchys gode space. Ibid. 380 Lorde! lo, my crouchis whare þei flee. 1582 Munday Eng. Rom. Life in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 196 Some of them [had] bound up their legs and went on croutches. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 83 (Qo. 1599) A crowch [Fo. crutch], a crowch, why call you for a sword? 1611 Florio, Gr{uacu}ccia..a lame mans crouch or crutchet. |
b. transf. as the symbol of old age.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 245 And giues the Crutch the Cradles infancie. a 1592 Greene & Lodge Looking Glasse (1861) 119 From cradle to the crutch. |
c. fig. A prop, a support.
| 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. Prol. Wks. 1856 I. 72 Your favour will give crutches to our faults. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. iii. 60 Hold him fast: He is thy crutch. 1728 Young Love Fame iv. (1757) 115 Who'd be a crutch to prop a rotten peer. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. v. 99 The Egyptians were later..in throwing off the crutches of picture signs. |
| β 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 130 Of what force therfore can this your wyndeshaken crooche be..whereupon your lame cripled workes do rest? Ibid. 230 Osorius underproppeth his Freewill here, with this crooch. |
| γ 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. iii. 54 This opinion is very feeble, and cannot goe without crouches. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry ii. vii. 73 He is Potent Counterpotent by the Crouches of providence. |
2. A support or prop, with a forked or concave top, for various uses:
cf. crotch 3.
| 1645 Enchirid. Fortif. 52 The crutches, or forks, against which the arms of each company are set. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 91 Though his house stands not upon crutches. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 28 On each hand of every seat were placed Crutches..for the Priest to lean upon. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) VI. 2169 The hunters fix their crutches in the ground, on which they rest their firelocks. 1892 Gardiner Student's Hist. Eng. 527 Soldier with musket and crutch: from a broadside printed about 1630. |
3. Of a saddle:
† a. Formerly, the raised part in front and at the back of the saddle.
Obs.| 1617 Markham Caval. iv. 48 The Garthweb which holdes vp his Tramels behinde the hinder croutch of his Saddle. 1663 Blair Autobiog. vii. (1848) 93, I was forced to stoop and lie on the very curche of the saddle. 1689 Depos. Cast. York (Surtees) 290 And..he could not hold up his head, but it hung below the sadle crutch on the farr side. |
b. In modern use: The front of the tree which is made to fork down on each side of the shoulder, and which supports the pommel. Also a forked rest for the leg in a side-saddle.
| 1874 in Knight Dict. Mech. |
4. Naut. a. Applied to various contrivances of a forked shape in a ship or boat,
e.g. a forked support (of wood or iron) for a boom, mast, spar, etc., when not in use (also called
crotch); a forked rowlock.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine, Chandeliers de chaloupe, the crutches of a boat, which sustain the main-boom, or the mast and sail, when they are lowered. 1791 Cowper Iliad i. 537 Lowering swift the mast Into its crutch. 1825 H. B. Gascoigne Nav. Fame 58 The Spanker-Boom then to the Crutch they bear. 1869 F. W. Bennett Leaves from Log 127 One of the men in beaching her lost his brass crutch (rowlock) overboard. |
| β 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine, Crotches..are fixed in different places of the ship..to support the spare-masts, yards, &c. 1799 Naval Chron. II. 238 A bolt must be fixed in each crotch. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Crutch or crotch..stanchions of wood or iron, whose upper parts are forked to receive masts, yards, and other spars, and which are fixed along the sides of gang ways. Crutches are used instead of rowlocks. |
b. Crooked timbers (or iron bands replacing them) fitted horizontally inside a vessel at the after end, and bolted to the stern post and the vessel's sides, to give additional strength to the connexion of these parts. They correspond to the
breast-hooks at the fore-end.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine, Crotches, a name given to those crooked timbers that are placed upon the keel in the fore and hind parts of a ship, upon which the frame of her hull grows narrower below, as it approaches the stem afore, and the stern post abaft. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 68 What are the crutches?.. Iron bands which unite the sides of the ship at the stern. |
5. In a clock: The fork at the end of the arm which depends from the axis of the anchor-escapement, and receives the pendulum rod between its arms.
| 1752 Ellicott in Phil. Trans. XLVII. 490 The pendulum is moved by a piece of steel (call'd the crutch) rivited to one end of the arbor. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., The pendulum-rod is contained within the limbs of the crutch. |
6. a. A handle consisting of a cross-bar like the head of a crutch.
| 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 141 The shafts [of the spade, with]..the crutch or open handle, according to preference. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Crutch..5. (Founding.) The cross-handle on the end of a shank (a founder's metal-ladle), by which it is tipped. |
b. Chiefly
Austral. and
N.Z. (See
quot. 1965.)
| 1916 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 20 Sept. 228 It is necessary to hold each lot of sheep in the bath for the time necessary to secure thorough immersion. This may be done..by the use of the crutch. 1953 B. Stronach Musterer on Molesworth viii. 55 We had two men on the ‘crutch’ pushing the sheep's heads under, and seven men at the race. 1965 J. S. Gunn Terminol. Shearing Industry i. 18 Crutch, a mallet-shaped instrument (like a crutch) used to push sheep under in a swimming dip. Improved dips, especially spray dips, have caused this tool to become obsolete. |
7. Soap-boiling. A staff with a perforated piece of wood or iron at the end, used to stir the ingredients.
| 1837 Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 409 A rotatory motion is given the crutch. |
8. a. The ‘fork’ of the human body: see
crotch 5;
b. the angle between the two flukes of a whale's flapper or tail-fin.
| 1748 F. Smith Voy. Disc. N.W. Pass. 163 The Stockings reach up to the Crutch. 1771 Franklin Autobiog. (1881) I. 140, I clapped my hand under his crutch, and..pitched him head-foremost into the river. 1842 F. D. Bennett Whaling Voy. II. 156 The tail-fin, or ‘flukes’..each half overlaps the other at the central notch, or ‘crutch’. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 154 The Fly to extend from top to within 3½ inches above point of Crutch. |
9. Comb., as
crutch-like adj.;
crutch-boots, tall sea boots;
crutch-cane, see
crutch-stick;
crutch-handled a., having a transverse handle like the head of a crutch; so
crutch-headed a.;
crutch-hole, a hole to receive a crutch or movable rowlock;
crutch-pin, the pin of a pendulum crutch;
crutch-stick, a crutch-handled stick;
crutch-tail: see
crotch 8.
| 1889 P. H. Emerson Eng. Idylls 118, I went down in the cabin, and pulled off my *crutch-boots. |
| 1847 Lytton Lucretia i. i, With a gold-headed *crutch-cane. |
| 1864 H. Ainsworth John Law Prol. iii. (1881) 19 He carried a *crutch-handled cane. |
| 1767 Babler I. 113, I..threw by my *crutch headed stick. |
| 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pock. Bk. vi. (ed. 2) 229 Boats..fitted with a *crutch hole on each quarter where an oar could be worked to assist the rudder. |
| 1772 Wollaston in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 77 The bottom of the stem, instead of receiving the *crutch-pin, is turned sideways. |
| 1780 in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1478 Walks with a short *crutch stick with an ivory head. |
▪ II. crutch, v.1 (
krʌtʃ)
[f. prec.] 1. a. trans. To support as with a crutch or crutches, to
prop.| 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. ii. 409 Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse. 1833 D'Israeli in New Monthly Mag. XXXVII. 432 The genius of Moliere..in its first attempts..did not move alone; it was crutched by imitation. 1890 Caine in Pall Mall G. 28 June 5/2 This sickly Government, crutched by Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain. |
b. with
up: To prop up, sustain.
| 1642 R. Carpenter Experience ii. viii. 193 Howsoever they crutch it up handsomly. 1816 Scott Old Mort. Concl., A history, growing already vapid, is but dully crutched up by a detail of circumstances which every reader must have anticipated. 1861 Thornbury Turner I. 106 Old crippled buildings..crutched up with posts and logs. |
2. intr. To go on crutches, to limp. (Also,
to crutch it.)
| 1828 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 810 Up and down..the various steps..do we delight to crutch it. 1847 Tait's Mag. XIV. 291 The most apparent ‘dodge’ on which a statesman ever ‘crutched’ round a corner. |
3. trans. Soap-boiling. To stir with a crutch.
| 1837 Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 410 What the new crutching wheels..will cost..we have no present means of stating. |
4. To push (a sheep) into a dip with a crutch (see
crutch n. 6 b). Chiefly
Austral. and
N.Z.| 1886 C. Scott Sheep-Farming 135 The hot water tank into which the sheep are put next morning has three divisions, in each of which they are well crutched. 1940 E. C. Studholme Te Waimate (1954) xiii. 117 One day whilst trying to ‘crutch’ (push under) some slippery-backed old ewe..Geoffrey fell in. |
5. To cut off the wool or hair from the hind-quarters of (a sheep, dog, etc.). Chiefly
Austral. and
N.Z.| 1915 J. R. Macdonald N.Z. Sheepfarming xxv. 68 If crutching is followed, any wool that might hinder the lambs from sucking may be clipped. 1920 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 20 July 8 The keeping-lambs are crutched, branded, dipped, and placed out. 1942 R. B. Kelley Animal Breeding vii. 76 We find it advantageous also to ‘crutch’ long-coated bitches. 1946 F. Davison Dusty vi. 65 Blowfly season was drawing near. Morrison and Tom were crutching the sheep, cutting away the soiled wool from under their tails, where they would be most likely to be blown. |
Hence
ˈcrutching vbl. n. (also
attrib.).
| 1837 [see sense 3]. 1915 [see sense 5]. 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch) 7 Oct. 15/7 When sheep are dipped, they are shoved under with a thing like an inverted crutch. This is called crutching. 1941 Nature 5 Apr. 421/2 ‘Crutching’..consists of shearing the wool away from the area around the tail so that this part keeps clean. 1953 O. E. Middleton in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 189 But aside from shearing and crutching times, life was good at the station. |
▪ III. † crutch, v.2 Obs. Misprint or error for
cratch, to scratch.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard viii. (Arb.) 15 Bruyn..crutched [Flem. crassede] with the hynder feet. |