crampon

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a hinged pair of curved iron bars; used to raise heavy objects
noun an iron spike attached to the shoe to prevent slipping on ice when walking or climbing

Borrowed from French crampon.

I was the only sound member of the party, and my shoulders were galled by the rope and my feet tender and sore from continual wearing of the crampons. — Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled: A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska, Hudson Stuck
He binds his crampons on his feet,--he is making his perilous way towards his failing Emperor;--now bounding like a hunted chamois; now creeping like an insect; now clinging like a root of ivy; now dropping like a squirrel:--he reaches the fainting monarch just as he relaxes his grasp on the jutting rock. — The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book, Ontario. Department of Education
The walls, with panels covered with hieroglyphics, and representations of allegorical processions, must have been the work of thousands of hands for thousands of years; the corridors, of an interminable length, ended in square rooms, in the middle of which pits had been constructed, to which we descended by means of crampons or spiral staircases. — Humorous Ghost Stories, Dorothy Scarborough

crampoon

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