different between cramp vs compress

English

Etymology

From Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramp”), from Proto-Germanic *kramp? (“cramp, clasp”). Distant relative of English crop.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æmp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

Noun

cramp (countable and uncountable, plural cramps)

1. A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled.
   • 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.

2. That which confines or contracts.

   Synonyms: restraint, shackle, hindrance

   • 1782, William Cowper, Truth

     crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear

3. A clamp for carpentry or masonry.
4. 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.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

cramp (third-person singular simple present cramps, present participle cramping, simple past and past participle cramped)

1. (intransitive) (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably.
2. (transitive) To affect with cramps or spasms.
   • 1936, Heinrich Hauser, Once Your Enemy (translated from the German by Norman Gullick)

     The collar of the tunic scratched my neck, the steel helmet made my head ache, and the puttees cramped my leg muscles.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To prohibit movement or expression of.
   • 1853, Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon

     But the front of the animal , which was in full , was narrow and cramped , and unequal in dignity to the side

4. (transitive) To restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp.

   You're going to need to cramp the wheels on this hill.

   • 1633, John Ford, Perkin Warbeck

     when the gout cramps my joints

5. To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp iron.
6. (by extension) To bind together; to unite.
   • 1780, Edmund Burke, Principles in Politics

     The […] fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.

7. To form on a cramp.

Derived terms

• cramp someone's style

Translations

Adjective

cramp (comparative more cramp, superlative most cramp)

1. (archaic) cramped; narrow

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “cramp”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• cramp at OneLook Dictionary Search

Manx

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

cramp

1. intricate, complex

Derived terms

• neuchramp

Mutation

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English compressen, from Old French compresser, from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprim? (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + prem? (“press”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?mpr?s', IPA^(key): /k?m?p??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

compress (third-person singular simple present compresses, present participle compressing, simple past and past participle compressed)

1. (transitive) To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.
   • June 17, 1825, Daniel Webster, Speech on the laying of the Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument

     events of centuries […] compressed within the compass of a single life

   • 1810, William Melmoth (translator), Letters of Pliny

     The same strength of expression, though more compressed, runs through his historical harangues.

2. (intransitive) To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.

3. (transitive) To condense into a more economic, easier format.

4. (transitive) To abridge.

5. (technology, transitive) To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.
6. (obsolete) To embrace sexually.
   • 1727, Alexander Pope, Metamorphoses

     This Nymph compress'd by him who rules the day,
     Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey,
     Andræmon lov'd; and , bless'd in all those charms
     That pleas'd a God, succeeded to her arms

Synonyms

• (press together): compact, condense, pack, press, squash, squeeze; see also Thesaurus:compress
• (be pressed together): contract
• (condense, abridge): abridge, condense, shorten, truncate; see also Thesaurus:shorten

Antonyms

• (press together): expand
• (be pressed together): decontract
• (condense, abridge): expand, lengthen
• (make computing data smaller): uncompress

Derived terms

Related terms

• compression

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French compresse, from compresse (“to compress”), from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprim? (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + prem? (“press”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?mp??s/
• (US) enPR: k?m'pr?s, IPA^(key): /?k?mp??s/

Noun

compress (plural compresses)

2. A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.

3. A machine for compressing.

Related terms

• compression

Translations