cruckle

English

Etymology

From earlier crookle (“to bend, twist, make crooked”), equivalent to crook (“to bend”) +‎ -le (frequentative suffix). Compare Dutch kreukelen, Low German krökeln.

Pronunciation

• (Rochdale) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹʊk(ə)l/, [ˈkʰɹʊkɫ̩]

Verb

cruckle (third-person singular simple present cruckles, present participle cruckling, simple past and past participle cruckled)

1. (Rochdale, dialectal, intransitive) To stumble after inverting or everting one's foot; to roll (but not necessarily sprain) one's ankle.
   • 2015 November 4, “Woman injured after falling on damaged pavement in Middleton”, in Rochdale Online:

     The resident, who does not want to be named, was walking along the street on Sunday (1 November) morning when she suddenly cruckled over on her ankle and fell on her hands, resulting in cuts and bruises.

   • 2017, Anna Jacobs, One Quiet Woman, Hachette UK:

     As they continued she tried to think what to do and pretended to stumble, after which she faked a slight limp. ¶ ‘Stop pretending to limp.’ ¶ ‘I'm not pretending. I twisted my foot when I cruckled.’

   • 2018 October 23, Emma Gill, “Is it a Rochdale thing? The school accident slip that left Holly's London dad absolutely baffled”, in Manchester Evening News:

     The slip said: "Holly cruckled whilst running" and he had no idea what it meant. […] Apparently, as many of you will already know, it means 'going over on your ankle'.

Anagrams

• clucker