Part 632

He will cram his brass down our throats. Swift.

2. To fill with food to satiety; to stuff.

Children would be freer from disease if they were not crammed so much as they are by fond mothers. Locke.

Cram us with praise, and make us As fat as tame things. Shak.

3. To put hastily through an extensive course of memorizing or study, as in preparation for an examination; as, a pupil is crammed by his tutor.

Cram, v. i. 1. To eat greedily, and to satiety; to stuff.

Gluttony . . . . Crams, and blasphemes his feeder. Milton.

2. To make crude preparation for a special occasion, as an examination, by a hasty and extensive course of memorizing or study. [Colloq.]

Cram, n. 1. The act of cramming.

2. Information hastily memorized; as, a cram from an examination. [Colloq.]

3. (Weaving) A warp having more than two threads passing through each dent or split of the reed.

Cram"bo (-b&osl;), n. [Cf. Cramp, a., difficult.] 1. A game in which one person gives a word, to which another finds a rhyme.

I saw in one corner . . . a cluster of men and women, diverting themselves with a game at crambo. I heard several double rhymes . . . which raised a great deal of mirth. Addison.

2. A word rhyming with another word.

His similes in order set And every crambo he could get. Swift.

Dumb crambo, a game in which one party of players give a word which rhymes with another, which last to be guessed by the opposing party, who represent in dumb show what they think it to be.

Cram"mer (krăm"m&etilde;r), n. One who crams; esp., one who prepares a pupil hastily for an examination, or a pupil who is thus prepared. Dickens.

{ Cra*moi"sie Cra*moi"sy} (kr?-moi"z?), a. [F. cramoisi crimson. See Crimson.] Crimson. [Obs.]

A splendid seignior, magnificent in cramoisy velevet. Motley.

Cramp (krămp), n. [OE. crampe, craumpe; akin to D. & Sw. kramp, Dan. krampe, G. krampf (whence F. crampe), Icel. krappr strait, narrow, and to E. crimp, crumple; cf. cram. See Grape.] 1. That which confines or contracts; a restraint; a shackle; a hindrance.

A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind. L'Estrange.

Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear. Cowper.

2. (Masonry) A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.

3. (Carp.) A rectangular frame, with a tightening screw, used for compressing the joints of framework, etc.

4. A piece of wood having a curve corresponding to that of the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape.

5. (Med.) A spasmodic and painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, as of the leg.

The cramp, divers nights, gripeth him in his legs. Sir T. More.

Cramp bone, the patella of a sheep; -- formerly used as a charm for the cramp. Halliwell. "He could turn cramp bones into chess men." Dickens. -- Cramp ring, a ring formerly supposed to have virtue in averting or curing cramp, as having been consecrated by one of the kings of England on Good Friday.