crawler

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• 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 who, finding it impossible to survive in the Australian bush, surrenders 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.

Cochineal (the crawler is on the left)

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.
5. A mobile stage in the development of stationary hemipteran insects such as scale insects- generally the first instar

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

• Arabic: زَحَّافَة‎ f (zaḥḥāfa)
• Finnish: telaketjutraktori
• German: Raupe (de) f
• Kabuverdianu: katrapila

• Malay: traktor rangkak
• Russian: гу́сеничный тра́ктор m (gúseničnyj tráktor)
• Spanish: trator oruga m

software bot

• Chinese:

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

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

• Malay: perangkak
• 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)

infinitive	simple	crawler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	crawlant /kʁo.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		crawlé /kʁo.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(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 historic2	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	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	crawle /kʁol/	crawles /kʁol/	crawle /kʁol/	crawlions /kʁo.ljɔ̃/	crawliez /kʁo.lje/	crawlent /kʁol/
	imperfect2	crawlasse /kʁo.las/	crawlasses /kʁo.las/	crawlât /kʁo.la/	crawlassions /kʁo.la.sjɔ̃/	crawlassiez /kʁo.la.sje/	crawlassent /kʁo.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	crawle /kʁol/	—	crawlons /kʁo.lɔ̃/	crawlez /kʁo.le/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

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