crawl

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Contents

English[edit]

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Etymology 1[edit]

Middle English crawlen, from Old Norse krafla (cf. Danish kravle ‘to crawl, creep’, Swedish kravla), from Proto-Germanic *krablōnan (cf. Dutch krabbelen, Low German krabbeln, Middle High German krappeln), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *krabbōnan ‘to scratch, scrape’. More at crab.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

crawl (third-person singular simple present crawls, present participle crawling, simple past and past participle crawled)

  1. (intransitive) To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, The China Governess[1]:
      ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’
    Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.
  2. (intransitive) To move forward slowly, with frequent stops.
    The rush-hour traffic crawled around the bypass.
  3. (intransitive) To act in a servile manner.
    Don't come crawling to me with your useless apologies!
  4. (intransitive, with "with") See crawl with.
  5. (intransitive) To feel a swarming sensation.
    The horrible sight made my skin crawl.
  6. (intransitive) To swim using the crawl stroke.
    I think I'll crawl the next hundred metres.
  7. (transitive) To move over an area on hands and knees.
    The baby crawled the entire second floor.
  8. (intransitive) To visit while becoming inebriated.
    They crawled the downtown bars.
  9. (transitive) To visit files or web sites in order to index them for searching.
    Yahoo Search has updated its Slurp Crawler to crawl web sites faster and more efficient.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to move along the ground on hands and knees
to move slowly
to act in a servile manner
to teem or swarm
to feel swarming sensation
to swim using crawl stroke
to move over an area on hands and knees
to visit while becoming inebriated
to index files or web sites in order to make them available for search
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun[edit]

crawl (plural crawls)

  1. The act of moving slowly on hands and knees etc, or with frequent stops
  2. A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick
  3. (television, film) A piece of horizontally scrolling text overlaid on the main image.
    • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[2]
      The opening crawl (and a stirring propaganda movie) informs us that “The Hunger Games” are an annual event in Panem, a North American nation divided into 12 different districts, each in service to the Capitol, a wealthy metropolis that owes its creature comforts to an oppressive dictatorship.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
slow movement on hands and knees, or with frequent stops
swimming stroke

Etymology 2[edit]

Compare kraal.

Noun[edit]

crawl (plural crawls)

  1. A pen or enclosure of stakes and hurdles for holding fish.

French[edit]

Noun[edit]

crawl m (plural crawls)

  1. crawl (swimming stroke)

Italian[edit]

Noun[edit]

crawl m (plural crawl)

  1. crawl (swimming stroke)

Swedish[edit]

Noun[edit]

crawl c (uncountable)

  1. crawl; swimming stroke

Declension[edit]

Declension of crawl
uncountable uncountable
Common indefinite definite
nominative crawl crawlen
genitive crawls crawlens

Related terms[edit]

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