Other forms: crippled, crippling, cripples
To cripple something is to leave it unable to work properly without destroying it outright. Crippled by debt, the strike crippled the service, a crippling blow.
The figurative verb is entirely standard: crippling debt, crippled the network, a crippling injury. The noun for a disabled person is offensive and has been out of acceptable use for decades — disabled person is the ordinary term, and many people prefer wheelchair user or a specific description. Note crippling, which is a common adjective for costs, doubts and pain.
1verbcrippleTo leave somebody or something unable to work properly.
“A power cut crippled the airport, and hundreds of flights were cancelled.”
2adjectivesevereSevere enough to stop something working.
“The costs were crippling and the project ran anyway.”
cripple is a disabling.
Old English crypel comes from a root meaning to crawl or bend — the same family as creep. The word described how somebody moved, which is why it became an insult rather than a description.
Middle English
crepel
English, today
cripple
From Middle English crepel. From Middle English cripel, crepel, crupel, from Old English crypel (“crippled; a cripple”), from Proto-Germanic krupilaz (“tending to crawl; a cripple”), from Proto-Indo-European grewb- (“to bend, crouch, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European ger- (“to bend, twist”), equivalent to creep + le. Cognate with Dutch kreupel, Low German Kröpel, German Krüppel, Old Norse kryppill.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA