crawler

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔːlə(r)

Etymology 1

From crawl (“act in a servile manner”) +‎ -er (“suffix forming agent noun”).

From the Australian convict period (1788-1850); a prisoner who was purposely and extensively abused by an overseer (also a convict) and thereby driven to escape but finding it impossible to survive in the Australian bush, surrender to this overseer who would then have his penal term reduced. The particular crawler was picked for his weak personality and might escape and return a number of times increasing his own penal term each time. According to James Tucker, some convict overseers had their sentences extensively reduced using this odious practice. Source-James Tucker's 1845 novel Ralph Rashleigh.

Noun

crawler (plural crawlers)

1. (Australia, obsolete) A person who is abused, physically or verbally, and returns to the abuser a supplicant.
2. (Britain, Australia, slang) A sycophant.

Etymology 2

From crawl (“move slowly, by dragging the body along the ground”) +‎ -er (“suffix forming agent noun”).

Caterpillar D9 crawler tractor.

Noun

crawler (plural crawlers)

1. A child who is able to creep using his hands and knees but is not able to walk.
2. (sports) A crawl swimmer.
3. A tractor crawler, a motorized vehicle that uses caterpillar tracks instead of wheels.
4. A software bot that autonomously follows connected paths such as webpage links.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• church crawler
• dungeon crawler

• kerb crawler/kerb-crawler
• pub crawler

Translations

child able to creep

• Finnish: ryömintäikäinen, konttaaja
• Russian: ползу́н (ru) m (polzún)

• Spanish: bebe (es) m

crawl swimmer

• Finnish: kroolaaja, vapaauimari, kroolari

tractor crawler

• Finnish: telaketjutraktori
• Russian: гу́сеничный тра́ктор m (gúseničnyj tráktor)

• Spanish: trator oruga m

software bot

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 爬蟲 (zh), 爬虫 (zh) (páchóng)

• Icelandic: vefskriðill m, vefkönguló f, skriðill m, könguló (is) f

• Serbo-Croatian: pobirač (sh) m, program pauk m
• Spanish: rastreador web

sycophant — see sycophant

abused person

• Spanish: adulador (es) m

Anagrams

• recrawl

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French

Etymology

crawl +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁo.le/

Verb

crawler

1. (transitive, intransitive) to swim using the crawl stroke
2. (transitive, intransitive, Internet) to spider

Conjugation

  Conjugation of crawler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		crawler			avoir crawlé
gerund		en crawlant			en ayant crawlé
present participle		crawlant /kʁo.lɑ̃/
past participle		crawlé /kʁo.le/
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	crawle /kʁol/	crawles /kʁol/	crawle /kʁol/	crawlons /kʁo.lɔ̃/	crawlez /kʁo.le/	crawlent /kʁol/
	imperfect	crawlais /kʁo.lɛ/	crawlais /kʁo.lɛ/	crawlait /kʁo.lɛ/	crawlions /kʁo.ljɔ̃/	crawliez /kʁo.lje/	crawlaient /kʁo.lɛ/
	past historic1	crawlai /kʁo.le/	crawlas /kʁo.la/	crawla /kʁo.la/	crawlâmes /kʁo.lam/	crawlâtes /kʁo.lat/	crawlèrent /kʁo.lɛʁ/
	future	crawlerai /kʁol.ʁe/	crawleras /kʁol.ʁa/	crawlera /kʁol.ʁa/	crawlerons /kʁol.ʁɔ̃/	crawlerez /kʁol.ʁe/	crawleront /kʁol.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	crawlerais /kʁol.ʁɛ/	crawlerais /kʁol.ʁɛ/	crawlerait /kʁol.ʁɛ/	crawlerions /kʁo.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	crawleriez /kʁo.lə.ʁje/	crawleraient /kʁol.ʁɛ/
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	crawle /kʁol/	crawles /kʁol/	crawle /kʁol/	crawlions /kʁo.ljɔ̃/	crawliez /kʁo.lje/	crawlent /kʁol/
	imperfect1	crawlasse /kʁo.las/	crawlasses /kʁo.las/	crawlât /kʁo.la/	crawlassions /kʁo.la.sjɔ̃/	crawlassiez /kʁo.la.sje/	crawlassent /kʁo.las/
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	crawle /kʁol/	—	crawlons /kʁo.lɔ̃/	crawlez /kʁo.le/	—
1literary tenses

Further reading

• “crawler” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).