Crutch sb.

Forms: 1 crycc(e, 3–5 crucche (ü), 5–6 cruche, crutche, 7– crutch; β. 6 crooch(e 6– crotch; γ. 5–6 crouche, crowch(e, 6 croutch, 6–7 crouch. [OE. crycc, (acc. crycce) fem., a common Teutonic word = *OLG. krukkja (whence MDu. crucke, Du. kruk, MLG. krucke, krocke, LG. krukke, krück), OHG. chruckja, chrucha (MHG. kruche, krucke, Ger. krücke), ON. krykkja (Norw. krykkja, OSw. krykkia, Da. krykke):—OTeut. krukjâ-, krukjôn- f. ablaut stem kruk- of kreuk- to bend. The ME. change of y(ü) to ŭ, is found also in clutch, much, trust. The phonology of the variants is obscure.

  For the crotch form, cf. CROTCH, as a separate word. Cruche may be merely a variant spelling, but it also occurs as a variant of CROCHE sb. q.v. Crooch(e may belong to crotch or to crouch: the latter was perh. influenced in form by CROUCH v., but it may represent an early lengthening of the u in cruche, crucche, with later diphthongization.]

  1.  A staff for a lame or infirm person to lean upon in walking: now a staff with a cross-piece at the top to fit under the armpit (usually a pair of crutches).

c. 900.  Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxxi[i]. (1891), 380. Mid his crycce hine wreðiʓende.

c. 1205.  Lay., 19482. Vder þe lome mon … he wænde mid his crucche us adun þrucche.

c. 1430.  Hymns Virg. (1867), 81. Þan wole no þing us availe but oure bedis and our crucche [rhyme myche].

c. 1440.  Sir Gowther, 673. We make … Crokyd here cruches for-sake.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 182. A crutche, grallus.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 373. Time goes on crutches, till Loue haue all his rites.

1684.  Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 161. He could not Dance without one Crutch in his Hand.

1709.  Addison, Tatler, No. 103, ¶ 11. I … gave him a new Pair of Crutches.

1805.  Med. Jrnl., XIV. 30. He could walk with great ease, and without crutches.

1866.  R. M. Ballantyne, Shifting Winds, xvi. (1881), 165. He walked with a crutch.

  β.  1530.  Palsgr., 211/1. Crotche for a lame man, potence.

1573.  Tusser, Husb., lx. (1878), 138. Mans age deuided here ye haue … The next [seven yeers: 71–77], get chaire and crotches to stay.

  γ.  c. 1440.  York Myst., xxv. 376. My man, ryse and caste þe cruchys gode space. Ibid., 380. Lorde! lo, my crouchis whare þei flee.

1582.  Munday, Eng. Rom. Life, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 196. His companions had some of them bound vp their legs, and went on croutches.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. I. 83 (Qo. 1599). A crowch [Fo. crutch], a crowch, why call you for a sword?

1611.  Florio, Grúccia … a lame mans crouch or crutchet.

  b.  transf. as the symbol of old age.

1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 245. And giues the Crutch the Cradles infancie.

a. 1592.  Greene & Lodge, Looking Glasse, Wks. (1861), 119/1. Wicked all from cradle to the crutch [1598 Church].

  c.  fig. A prop, a support.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., Prol. A 2 b.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. iii. 60. Hold him fast: He is thy crutch.

1728.  Young, Love Fame, IV. (ed. 11), 29. Who’d be a Crutch to prop a rotten Peer.

1865.  Tylor, Early Hist. Man., v. 99. They [Egyptians] were later than other nations in throwing off the crutches of picture-signs.

  β.  1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 130. Of what force therfore can this your wyndeshaken crooche be … whereupon your lame cripled workes do rest? Ibid., 230. Osorius underproppeth his Freewill here, with this crooch.

  γ.  1635.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. iii. 54. This opinion is very feeble, and cannot goe without crouches.

1661.  Morgan, Sph. Gentry, II. vii. 73. He is Potent Counterpotent, by the Crouches of providence.

  2.  A support or prop, with a forked or concave top, for various uses: cf. CROTCH 3.

1645.  Enchirid. Fortif., 52. The crutches, or forks, against which the arms of each company are set.

1670.  Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 91. Though his house stands not upon crutches.

1703.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 28. On each hand of every seat were placed Crutches…. Their use is for the Priest to lean upon.

1772–84.  Cook, Voy. (1790), VI. 2169. The hunters fix their crutches in the ground, on which they rest their firelocks.

1892.  Gardiner, Student’s Hist. Eng., 527. Soldier with musket and crutch: from a broadside printed about 1630.

  3.  Of a saddle: † a. Formerly, the raised part in front and at the back of the saddle. Obs.

1617.  Markham, Caval., IV. 48. The Garthweb which holdes vp his Tramels behinde the hinder croutch of his Saddle.

1663.  Blair, Autobiog., vii. (1848), 93. I was forced to stoop and lie on the very curche of the saddle.

1689.  Depos. Cast. York (Surtees), 290. And … he could not hold up his head, but it hung below the sadle crutch on the farr side.

  b.  In modern use: The front of the tree that is made to fork down on each side of the shoulder, and which supports the pommel. Also a forked rest for the leg in a side-saddle.

1874.  in Knight, Dict. Mech.

  4.  Naut. Applied to various contrivances of a forked shape in a ship or boat, e.g., a forked support (of wood or iron) for a boom, mast, spar, etc., when not in use (also called crotch); a forked rowlock.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine, Chandeliers de chaloupe, the crutches of a boat, which sustain the main-boom, or the mast and sail, when they are lowered.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, I. 537. Lowering swift the mast Into its crutch.

1825.  H. B. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 58. The Spanker-Boom then to the Crutch they bear.

1869.  F. W. Bennett, Leaves from Log, 127. One of the men in beaching her lost his brass crutch (rowlock) overboard.

  β.  1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine, Crotches … are fixed in different places of the ship … to support the spare-masts, yards, &c.

1799.  Naval Chron., II. 238. A bolt must be fixed in each crotch.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Crutch or crotch … stanchions of wood or iron, whose upper parts are forked to receive masts, yards, and other spars, and which are fixed along the sides of gang ways. Crutches are used instead of rowlocks.

  b.  Crooked timbers (or iron bands replacing them) fitted horizontally inside a vessel at the after end, and bolted to the stern post and the vessel’s sides, to give additional strength to the connection of these parts. They correspond to the breast-hooks at the fore-end.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine, Crotches, a name given to those crooked timbers that are placed upon the keel in the fore and hind parts of a ship, upon which the frame of her hull grows narrower below, as it approaches the stem afore, and the stern post abaft.

c. 1860.  H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 68. What are the crutches?
  Similar iron bands which unite the sides of the ship at the stern.

  5.  In a clock: The fork at the end of the arm which depends from the axis of the anchor-escapement, and receives the pendulum rod between its arms.

1752.  Ellicott, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 490. The pendulum is moved by a piece of steel (call’d the crutch) rivited to one end of the arbor.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v., The pendulum-rod is contained within the limbs of the crutch.

  6.  A handle consisting of a cross-bar like the head of a crutch.

1831.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 141. The shafts [of the spade, with] … the crutch or open handle, according to preference.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Crutch … 5. (Founding.) The cross-handle on the end of a shank (a founder’s metal-ladle), by which it is tipped.

  7.  Soap-boiling. A staff with a perforated piece of wood or iron at the end, used to stir the ingredients.

1837.  Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 409. A rotatory motion is given the crutch.

  8.  a. The ‘fork’ of the human body: see CROTCH 5; b. the angle between the two flukes of a whale’s flapper or tail-fin.

1748.  F. Smith, Voy. Disc. N. W. Pass., 163. The Stockings reach up to the Crutch.

1771.  Franklin, Autobiog. (1881), I. 140. I clapped my hand under his crutch, and … pitched him head-foremost into the river.

1842.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., II. 156. The tail-fin, or ‘flukes’ … each half overlaps the other at the central notch, or ‘crutch.’

1844.  Regul. & Ord. Army, 154. The Fly to extend from top to within 3¹/₂ inches above point of Crutch.

  9.  Comb., as crutch-like adj.; crutch-boots, tall sea boots; crutch-cane, see crutch-stick; crutch-handled a., having a transverse handle like the head of a crutch; so crutch-headed a.; crutch-hole, a hole to receive a crutch or movable rowlock; crutch-pin, the pin of a pendulum crutch; crutch-stick, a crutch-handled stick; crutch-tail: see CROTCH 8.

1889.  P. H. Emerson, Eng. Idylls, 118. I went down in the cabin, and pulled off my *crutch-boots.

1847.  Lytton, Lucretia, I. i. With a gold-headed *crutch-cane.

1864.  W. H. Ainsworth, John Law, Prol. iii. (1881), 19. He carried a *crutch-handled cane.

1767.  Babler, I. 113. I … threw by my *crutch headed stick.

1875.  Bedford, Sailor’s Pock. Bk. vi. (ed. 2), 229. Boats … fitted with a *crutch hole on each quarter where an oar could be worked to assist the rudder.

1772.  Wollaston, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 77. The bottom of the stem, instead of receiving the *crutch-pin, is turned sideways.

1780.  in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1478. Walks with a short *crutch stick with an ivory head.