[f. CRAMP sb.1 + RING.]
1. A ring held to be efficacious against cramp, falling sickness, and the like; esp. one of those which in pre-reformation times the kings and queens of England used to hallow on Good Friday for this purpose.
See Burnet, Hist. Ref., Records II. 266; Brand, Pop. Antiq. (1870), I. 85.
1463. Bury Wills (1850), 41. My crampe ryng with blak innamel and a part silvir and gilt.
1526. Magnus, Lett. to Wolsey, in Gentl. Mag., CIV. I. 30. Certaine Cramp Ringges which I distributed … amonges other to M. Adame Otterbourne, who, with oone of thayme, releved a mann lying in the falling sekenes.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., i. (1870), 121. The Kynges of Englande doth halowe euery yere Crampe rynges, the whyche rynges, worne on ones fynger, dothe help them the whyche hath the Crampe.
1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl, IV. ii. A face … which shows like an agate set in a cramp ring.
1694. Collect. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 193. The Morss or Sea-horse … having a great semi-circular Tusk … very much valued … for their uses in Medicines, as to make Cramp-rings (which they make also of the Bristles upon his Cheeks) to resist Poison and other malignant Diseases.
1750. T. Gordon, Cordial Low Spirits, II. 138. Is not a Brilliant more attractive than a Cramp-Ring?
1847. Maskell, Mon. Rit., III. p. clviij. These rings were called Cramp-rings, and the MS. in this volume is the service dedicated to their consecration.
1878. J. C. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Cramp-ring, a ring made from old coffin-tyre, or the metal ornaments of decayed coffins, and worn as a preventative of cramp.
† 2. Thieves’ cant. [with reference to CRAMP sb.2] pl. Shackles, fetters. Obs.
1567. Harman, Caveat, 84. Quier crampringes, boltes or fetters.
1621. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam., Wks. (Rtldg.), 620/1. Here’s no justice Lippus Will seek for to nip us, In Crampring or Cippus.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 17. Thou the Cramprings ne’re didst scowre [= wear].
