Limp

How to spell limp

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce limp

What does limp mean?

1. verbTo walk with an uneven, halting step because of injury or weakness.
2. adjectiveLacking firmness or stiffness; soft and drooping.

Limp in a sentence

• verb

  After twisting his ankle he had to limp to the car.

• adjective

  The lettuce had gone limp at the bottom of the fridge.

• verb

  The injured player began to limp towards the bench.

• adjective

  His handshake felt limp and unconvincing.

Where does limp come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The two meanings of limp share a tangled but largely Germanic history. The adjective sense, meaning soft and lacking stiffness, appeared in English only in the 1700s and is thought to relate to an old Germanic group of words for hanging slackly or being flabby, the same loose-and-drooping idea found in 'limber'. The verb sense, meaning to walk unevenly, is older and is generally traced to Old English 'lemphealt', describing someone who is lame or halting; the first part of that compound carried the notion of a faltering, dragging step. Over time the longer Old English form was worn down to the short, blunt word we now write as four letters. The spelling is wonderfully simple, which is why this entry sits at the easy end of the scale, with no silent letters and no doubling to trip an adult writer.

How the word is built

• limp (a single Old English root; no separable prefix or suffix)