crutch.
A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
Meaning & usage
A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
He walked on crutches for a month until the cast was removed from his leg.
Something or someone that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthy dependency; a prop.
Alcohol became a crutch to help him through the long nights; eventually it killed him.
A crotch; the area of body where the legs fork from the trunk.
A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.
A knee, or piece of knee timber.
A forked stanchion or post; a crotch.
An improvised device, usually made from a piece of cardboard, to hold the last end of a joint.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.
To support on crutches; to prop up.
To move on crutches.
To shear the hindquarters of a sheep; to dag.
to stir with a crutch.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.