Meanings
present singular third person cramps someone's style · participle present cramping someone's style · participle past cramped someone's style · past cramped someone's style
- idiomaticinformalTo restrict someone's free action or expression.
I don't want my Mum to go to the party: she'd really cramp my style.
1 more example
What are you doing? I'm trying to get a date, you're cramping my style!
1987, David Simkins, Adventures in Babysitting (motion picture), spoken by Daryl Coopersmith (Anthony Rapp)
Origin
In 1819, Charles Lamb wrote in a letter to Wordsworth: “I will never write another letter with alternate inks. You cannot imagine how it cramps the flow of the style.” Lamb’s letters were published in book form in 1837 and saw several editions and reprints. The letter was also included in volume 7 of the 12-volume book The Life and Works of Charles Lamb, thus appearing again in print at the beginning of the 20th century. It was again included in volume 6 of The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, which was first published in 1905. It is possible that the idiomatic use, which dates from the early 1900s, originated with this passage by Lamb.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish acalambrar / encalambrar su estilo, estorbar
- acalambrar / encalambrar su estiloTranslations
- estorbarTranslations
Cite this entry
cramp someone's style. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cramp%20someone's%20style
“cramp someone's style.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cramp%20someone's%20style. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cramp someone's style,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cramp%20someone's%20style.
Source: cramp someone's style on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.