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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

writer's cramp en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, uncountable) A debilitating pain preventing easy movement of the wrist, hand, or fingers, resulting from prolonged use of a pen or pencil.
    • Henry James, after he suffered an attack of writer's cramp, began to dictate to a typist. 2007 Nov. 4, John Updike, "On Literary Biography" (excerpt from Due Considerations), New York Times (retrieved 9 Dec 2011)
    • Christmas dividend checks and checks covering Christmas presents to his employees were always signed by him. . . . He had writer's cramp by the time he finished. 1922, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 23, in Cappy Ricks Retires:
    • The recording of their tales is no more than a matter of ears and fingers. There are only two fates I dread—deafness and writer's cramp. c. 1900, O. Henry, He Also Serves:
    • "The following boys will go in to extra lesson this afternoon and next Wednesday," it began. And "the following boys" numbered four hundred. "Bates must have got writer's cramp," said Clowes, as he read the huge scroll. 1909, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 12, in Mike: A Public School Story:

Synonyms

mogigraphia · cheirospasm · graphospasm

Translations (11)

sv skrivkramp (cramp in the writing hand) · nb skrivekrampe (cramp in the writing hand) · nn skrivekrampe (cramp in the writing hand) · de Graphospasmus (cramp in the writing hand) · de Cheirospasmus (cramp in the writing hand) · ro crampa scriitorului (cramp in the writing hand) · da skrivekrampe (cramp in the writing hand) · ca grafospasme (cramp in the writing hand) · ca rampa dels escrivents (cramp in the writing hand) · de Schreibkrampf (cramp in the writing hand) · ja 書痙 (cramp in the writing hand)