Meaning

noun the uneven manner of walking that results from an injured leg

verb walk impeded by some physical limitation or injury

verb proceed slowly or with difficulty

originFrom Middle English limpen (“to fall short”), from Old English limpan, from Proto-West Germanic *limpan, from Proto-Germanic *limpaną (“to hang down”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lemb-, *(s)lembʰ- (“to hang loosely, hang limply”). Cognate with Low German lumpen (“to limp”), Middle High German limpfen (“to hobble, limp”), dialectal German lampen (“to hang down loosely”), Icelandic limpa…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0