cripplingly
1
8.4
- adverb
- /ˈkrɪp.lɪŋ.li/
:
de manera incapacitante
- And I couldn't tell whether he was just like sort of cripplingly shy or whether I was asking the wrong questions or there was a language barrier or whatever.
- cripplingly shy
Examples
-
She found the cripplingly shy atmosphere in the party made it hard to socialize.
-
They all try to kill you-- slowly, painfully, cripplingly.
-
This is a cripplingly anti-intellectual culture.
Blog text (23) -
The scene is both unsettling and cripplingly boring.
Blog text (33) -
I think there are better, more effective, less cripplingly expensive ways to prove you're talented, to learn skills, and to gain experience.
Blog text (22) -
That's how to counteract what Deng set in motion: put a cripplingly high cost on the business practice of foreign outsourcing of labor.
Blog text (15) -
I fell asleep sometime around eleven in the morning, in the rocker, and only woke when the sun was slanting toward midafternoon, my head hung cripplingly over the back of the chair.
Fiction book (1998) -
The cripplingly high costs of living in the city deter many families from moving there.
-
His cripplingly poor health made it difficult for him to carry out daily activities.
Synonyms
16
8.2
In a very painful or strong way
4
7.4
In a way that causes very strong physical pain or deep worry
In a way that is too unpleasant or painful to bear
In a way that makes something hard to do or bear
In a way that causes a lot of extra work or trouble
Antonyms
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word cripplingly comes from the old English word cripple, which meant 'to make weak' or 'a person who cannot move well', and the ending -ly turns that idea into 'in a way that'. So when something is described as cripplingly bad, it 'causes great difficulty or makes people or systems weak', which is why we use it for very serious problems.