These words refer to partial or complete disablement, particularly of the legs or feet. Lame can refer to such impairment in a man or animal. It perhaps most often suggests a gradually worsening disablement or stiffening as from old age or arthritis. In many cases, walking might still be possible, though difficult: the lame old man who used a cane to get about; a horse that had gone lame in one hind leg and had to be shot. The word can also refer to other impairments, especially involving muscular soreness or inflammation: a lame back that made sitting up straight excruciating. More generally, the word can indicate something poor or awkward: a lame excuse. The rather old-fashioned word game has given us also the informal word gammy . Both mean lame in the physical sense but usually qualify some part of the body: The accident left him with a game (or gammy ) leg.

Crippled is now more often used to suggest an accidental impairment: left permanently crippled by the collision. Also, the word can more often suggest total loss of movement: telling the crippled man he would never regain the use of either leg. While the word is, thus, more forceful than lame , it can be used for milder impairments, as well: hands crippled by rheumatism: a crippled woman who could walk by means of braces attached to her legs. Halt is now archaic sounding when used of a person who is lame or walks with a limp, except in stock phrases: a beggar who was both halt and blind.

Hamstrung pertains most directly to animals when the Achilles tendons of their hind legs have been purposely cut to make them incapable of walking: mounted police whose horses were hamstrung by the rioters. The word can also refer to the same condition in people, usually accidental: a torn ligament that left the star hurdler hamstrung . More commonly the word refers to any frustrating setback: office procedure hamstrung by bureaucratic complexity. Crippled can also be used in a comparable way: a housing programme crippled by cutbacks in the budget. Hobbled can indicate a less drastic way of impeding the movement of horses – in which legs are tied so as to permit walking but not running or galloping: horses hobbled on the outskirts of the camp. Metaphorically, the word also suggests reduced activity caused by some frustrating factor: a bill hobbled in committee by obstructionist amendments.