crutch

🩼

Meaning

1. A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.
2. Something that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthful dependency; a prop
3. A crotch; the area of body where the legs fork from the trunk.
4. A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.
5. A knee, or piece of knee timber.
6. A forked stanchion or post; a crotch.

staff

dog nail

dog-nail

crutched/walking stick

dog spike

rail spike

upright post

spike nail

upright stanchion

vertical prop

upright column

plate nail

road spike

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kɹʌt͡ʃ/

From Middle English crucche, from Old English cryċċ (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krukkju, from Proto-Germanic *krukjō (“crutch, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewg- (“wrinkle, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate with Scots curche, crutch (“crutch, stilts”), Dutch kruk (“crutch”), Low German krukke, Krück (“crutch”), German Krücke (“crutch”), Swedish krycka (“crutch”). Latin crucia, crucca, croccia, crocia (“crutch”), and its descendants are ultimately from the Germanic.