crutch

Etymology

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.

noun

1. 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.
2. Something that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthful dependency; a prop
   Alcohol became a crutch to help him through the long nights; eventually it killed him.
   Rhyme[…]is […] at best a crutch that lifts the weak alone. 1710, Edmund Smith, A poem on the death of Mr. John Philips
3. A crotch; the area of body where the legs fork from the trunk.
4. A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.
5. (nautical) A knee, or piece of knee timber.
6. (nautical) A forked stanchion or post; a crotch.

verb

1. (transitive) To support on crutches; to prop up.
2. (intransitive) To move on crutches.
3. (transitive) To shear the hindquarters of a sheep; to dag.
   After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money. January 29 2010, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal
4. (transitive, in soap-making) to stir with a crutch.