Cane vs. Crutch — What's the Difference?

The hollow jointed stem of a tall grass, especially bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem of a slender palm such as rattan.

A crutch is a mobility aid that transfers weight from the legs to the upper body. It is often used by people who cannot use their legs to support their weight, for reasons ranging from short-term injuries to lifelong disabilities.

A length of cane or a slender stick, especially one used as a support for plants, a walking stick, or an instrument of punishment

A support used by an injured or disabled person, often in pairs, as an aid to walking, having a vertical shaft that is sometimes forked, a horizontal grip for the hand, and a crosspiece that is positioned under the armpit or a cuff that wraps around the forearm.

Beat with a cane as a punishment

Something on which one depends, often excessively

Take (drink or drugs) in large quantities

A forked support or part.

A slender, strong but often flexible stem, as of certain bamboos, reeds, or rattans.

A forked leg rest on a sidesaddle.

A plant having such a stem.

(Archaic)The crotch of a person or animal.

Such stems or strips of such stems used for wickerwork or baskets.

To move using a crutch or crutches.

A bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea) native to the southeast United States, having long stiff stems and often forming canebrakes.

To support on a crutch or crutches.

The stem of a raspberry, blackberry, certain roses, or similar plants.

A device to assist in motion as a cane, especially one that provides support under the arm to reduce weight on a leg.

Sugarcane.

Something that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthful dependency; a prop

A stick used as an aid in walking or carried as an accessory.

A crotch; the area of body where the legs fork from the trunk.

A rod used for flogging.

A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.

A glass cylinder made of smaller, variously colored glass rods that have been fused together, used in glassmaking.

(nautical) A knee, or piece of knee timber.

To make, supply, or repair with flexible woody material.

(nautical) A forked stanchion or post; a crotch.

To hit or beat with a rod.

(heraldry) A type of cross formed from two C-shapes joined back to back.

A plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof

(transitive) To support on crutches; to prop up.

(uncountable) The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae

(intransitive) To move on crutches.

(uncountable) The plant itself, including many species in the grass family Gramineae; a reed

(transitive) To shear the hindquarters of a sheep; to dag.

(uncountable) Sugar cane

To stir with a crutch.

Maize or, rarely, sorghum, when such plants are processed to make molasses (treacle) or sugar

A staff with a crosspiece at the head, to be placed under the arm or shoulder, to support the lame or infirm in walking.

The stem of such a plant adapted for use as a tool

A form of pommel for a woman's saddle, consisting of a forked rest to hold the leg of the rider.

(countable) A short rod or stick, traditionally of wood or bamboo, used for corporal punishment.

A knee, or piece of knee timber

(with "the") Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.

To support on crutches; to prop up.

A lance or dart made of cane

A wooden or metal staff that fits under the armpit and reaches to the ground; used by disabled person while walking

A rod-shaped tool or device, somewhat like a cane

Anything that serves as an expedient;

(countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick

A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking

(countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path

(uncountable) Split rattan, as used in wickerwork, basketry and the like

A local European measure of length; the canna.

To strike or beat with a cane or similar implement

To destroy; to comprehensively defeat

To do something well, in a competent fashion

To produce extreme pain

(transitive) To make or furnish with cane or rattan.

A name given to several peculiar palms, species of Calamus and Dæmanorops, having very long, smooth flexible stems, commonly called rattans.

A walking stick; a staff; - so called because originally made of one of the species of cane.

A lance or dart made of cane.

A local European measure of length. See Canna.

To beat with a cane.

To make or furnish with cane or rattan; as, to cane chairs.

A stick that people can lean on to help them walk

A strong slender often flexible stem as of bamboos, reeds, rattans, or sugar cane

A stiff switch used to hit students as punishment

Beat with a cane