crutch

plural crutches

1. A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.

   He walked on crutches for a month until the cast was removed from his leg.

   2 more examples

   I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other.

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   Sullen now, with stultified spleen, Mrs Dibble grappled her crutches and levered herself upright after an ungainly struggle.

   1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150

2. figurativelySomething or someone that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthy dependency; a prop.

   Alcohol became a crutch to help him through the long nights; eventually it killed him.

   1 more example

   Rhyme[…]is […] at best a crutch that lifts the weak alone.

   1710, Edmund Smith, A poem on the death of Mr. John Philips

3. A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.
4. nauticalA knee, or piece of knee timber.
5. nauticalA forked stanchion or post.
6. slangAn improvised device, usually made from a piece of cardboard, to hold the last end of a joint.

present singular third person crutches · participle present crutching · participle past crutched · past crutched

1. transitiveTo support on crutches; to prop up.

   [I'll] haſten Og and Doeg to rehearſe, / Tvvo Fools that Crutch their Feeble Senſe on Verſe; / VVho by my Muſe to all ſucceeding times, / Shall live in ſpight of their ovvn Dogrell Rhimes.

   1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 13

2. intransitiveTo move on crutches.
3. transitiveTo shear the hindquarters of a sheep; to dag.

   After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money.

   2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal

4. transitiveto stir with a crutch.