Obs. Also 7 cromp. [OE. crump OHG. chrumph, MHG. krumpf, a by-form, prob. intensive, of OE. crumb, OHG. chrumb (see CRUMB a.), which has largely supplanted the simpler form. There is however a long gap in the history during the ME. period, and it is possible that the 16th c. crump resulted from analysis of crump-back, crump-footed, etc., where crumped, crumpt, was in earlier use. For the etymological affinities of the group see Note to CRAMP sb.1]
A. adj. 1. Crooked: said chiefly of the body or limbs from deformity, old age, or disease.
a. 800. Corpus Gloss., 1411. Obunca crump.
c. 1050. O. E. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 459. Obunca crump.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. (1641), 21/2. All those steep mountains … Under first Waters their crump shoulders hid.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 186. Cromp shoulders.
1656. W. D., trans., Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unl., ¶ 287. A crump-back, swoln throat, and any bunch whatsoever, caus deformitie.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, I. 34. Bowing low with her back-bone crump.
2. Comb., as crump-back sb., a hunch-back, a crook-back; crump-backed, -footed, -shouldered, etc.
[Cf. Ger. combinations in krumm-, as krummfusz, krumfūszig, Du. krom-, as krom-voet, krom-voetigh (Kilian).]
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 223 a. Croumpe shouldreed, shorte necked.
1599. Withals, Dict., 96/1. Crumpe-footed, loripes.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, x. 191. Ne’re contract VVith one throat-swoln, gor-bellied, or Crump-back’d.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 153. It helps crump-backs.
1775. trans. C’tess D’Aunoy’s Wks., 370. She was Hunch-back’d and Crump-shoulder’d both before and behind.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict., s.v. Back, Crump backed, gibbosus, humeris incurvus.
B. sb. 1. A hunch or hump on the back. rare.
1659. Torriano, Scrígno, a bunch, a crump, a knob upon ones back.
2. A crooked person, a hunch-back.
1698. Vanbrugh, Æsop, II. i. Esop … that piece of deformity! that monster! that crump! Ibid., III. i. if I stand to hear this crump preach a little longer, I shall be fool enough perhaps to be bubbled out of my livelihood.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, I. 78. Tho’ the Crump too that Season, Got Bruges and Ghent by Treason.
c. 1765. Flloyd, Tartarian T. (1785), 43/2. Nohoud … put only one of the crumps into his sack.
