Other forms: crutches
A crutch is the stick you lean on when a leg cannot take your weight, with a padded top that sits under the armpit or a cuff that grips the forearm. They come in pairs, and after a bad break you spend six weeks on crutches.
The plural does most of the work in real sentences: on crutches, a pair of crutches, getting about with crutches. The figure of speech is just as common, since a crutch is anything you lean on more than you should, so a phone becomes a social crutch and a joke becomes a crutch for a nervous speaker. That figurative use carries a small sting, because it hints the support is not really needed. Keep crutch well apart from crotch, which is a different part of the body altogether. Beside it stand the walking stick, held in one hand, and the frame, which stands on the floor in front of you.
1nouncrutchA support you lean on to walk while a leg is injured.
“He came into the office on crutches with his ankle in a boot.”
2nounheavilySomething a person leans on too heavily for support.
“The cigarettes were a crutch that got him through the first month.”
crutch is a walking aid.
Also accepted in games: crutches
From Old English crycc, a crutch or staff, through Proto-Germanic krukjo, and back to an ancient root meaning to bend, which is the crook at the top of the stick. German Krucke, Dutch kruk and Swedish krycka are the same word. The Latin words for crutch were borrowed from Germanic rather than the other way round.
Proto-Indo-European
*grewg- — wrinkle, bend
Proto-Germanic
*krukjō — crutch, staff
Proto-West Germanic
*krukkju
Old English
cryċċ — crutch, staff
Middle English
crucche
English, today
crutch
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA