different between cripple vs deface

English

Alternative forms

• creeple (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English cripel, crepel, crüpel, from Old English crypel (“crippled; a cripple”), from Proto-Germanic *krupilaz (“tending to crawl; a cripple”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to bend, crouch, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to bend, twist”), equivalent to creep +? -le. Cognate with Dutch kreupel, Low German Kröpel, German Krüppel, Old Norse kryppill.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k??pl/
• Rhymes: -?p?l

Adjective

cripple (not comparable)

1. (now rare, dated) Crippled.
   • 1599 — William Shakespeare, Henry V, iv 1

     And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night, who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp so tediously away.

Translations

Noun

cripple (plural cripples)

1. (sometimes offensive) a person who has severely impaired physical abilities because of deformation, injury, or amputation of parts of the body.

   He returned from war a cripple.

   • I am […] a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine.

2. A shortened wooden stud or brace used to construct the portion of a wall above a door or above and below a window.
3. (dialect, Southern US except Louisiana) scrapple.
4. (among lumbermen) A rocky shallow in a stream.

Synonyms

• disabled person

Derived terms

• Cripple Creek
• emotional cripple

Translations

Verb

cripple (third-person singular simple present cripples, present participle crippling, simple past and past participle crippled)

1. to make someone a cripple; to cause someone to become physically impaired

   The car bomb crippled five passers-by.

2. (figuratively) to damage seriously; to destroy

3. (figuratively) to cause severe and disabling damage; to make unable to function normally
   • 2019, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, I Don't Care

     With all these people all around / I'm crippled with anxiety / But I'm told it's where I'm s'posed to be.
4. to release a product (especially a computer program) with reduced functionality, in some cases, making the item essentially worthless.

   The word processor was released in a crippled demonstration version that did not allow you to save.

5. (slang, video games) to nerf something which is overpowered

Synonyms

• (cause physical disability): see Thesaurus:disable
• (seriously damage): see Thesaurus:destroy or Thesaurus:harm
• (release with reduced functionality): limit, restrict

Translations

See also

• disfigurement
• lame
• paralysis
• disability

Anagrams

• clipper

English

Etymology

From Middle English defacen, from Old French defacier, desfacier (“to mutilate, destroy, disfigure”), from des- (“away from”) (see dis-) + Vulgar Latin *facia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??fe?s/, /di??fe?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Verb

deface (third-person singular simple present defaces, present participle defacing, simple past and past participle defaced)

1. To damage or vandalize something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
   • 1869: George Eliot, The Legend of Jubal

     That wondrous frame where melody began / Lay as a tomb defaced that no eye cared to scan.

2. To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value of.

   He defaced the I.O.U. notes by scrawling "void" over them.

   • 1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

     One-and-twenty worn and defaced shillings, however, were considered as equivalent to a guinea, which perhaps, indeed, was worn and defaced too, but seldom so much so.

3. (heraldry, flags) To alter a coat of arms or a flag by adding an element to it.

   You get the Finnish state flag by defacing the national flag with the state coat of arms placed in the middle of the cross.

Synonyms

• (damage in a conspicuous way): disfigure, mar, obliterate, scar, vandalize
• (degrade the face value): cancel, devalue, nullify, void

Derived terms

• defacement

Translations

See also

• efface