[f. prec.]
1. trans. To support as with a crutch or crutches, to prop.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., II. 409. Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse.
1833. D’Israeli, in New Monthly Mag., XXXVII. 432. The genius of Moliere, long undiscovered by himself, in its first attempts in a higher walk did not move alone; it was crutched by imitation, and it often deigned to plough with another’s heifer.
1890. Caine, in Pall Mall Gaz., 28 June, 5/1. This sickly Government, crutched by Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain.
b. with up: To prop up, sustain.
1642. R. Carpenter, Experience, II. viii. 193. Howsoever they crutch it up handsomly.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., Concl. A history, growing already vapid, is but dully crutched up by a detail of circumstances which every reader must have anticipated.
1861. Thornbury, Turner, I. 106. Old crippled buildings … crutched up with posts and logs.
2. intr. To go on crutches, to limp. (Also, to crutch it.)
1828. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXIII. 810/2. Up and down … the various steps … do we delight to crutch it.
1847. Tait’s Mag., XIV. 291. The most apparent ‘dodge’ on which a statesman ever ‘crutched’ round a corner.
3. trans. Soap-boiling. To stir with a crutch. Hence Crutching vbl. sb.; also attrib.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 410. What the new crutching wheels … will cost … we have no present means of stating.
