Crawl

//kɹɔːl// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of moving slowly on hands and knees, etc.
  2. 2
    A pen or enclosure of stakes and hurdles for holding fish.
  3. 3
    a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body wordnet
  4. 4
    The act of sequentially visiting a series of similar establishments (i.e., a bar crawl).
  5. 5
    a very slow movement wordnet
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick.
  2. 7
    a swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick wordnet
  3. 8
    A very slow pace. figuratively

    "My computer has slowed down to a crawl since I installed that software package."

  4. 9
    A piece of horizontally or vertically scrolling text overlaid on the main image.

    "22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/ 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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground. intransitive

    "Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench."

  2. 2
    move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground wordnet
  3. 3
    To move forward slowly, with frequent stops. intransitive

    "The rush-hour traffic crawled around the bypass."

  4. 4
    swim by doing the crawl wordnet
  5. 5
    To act in a servile manner. intransitive

    "Don’t come crawling to me with your useless apologies!"

Show 9 more definitions
  1. 6
    show submission or fear wordnet
  2. 7
    Followed by with: see crawl with. intransitive
  3. 8
    be full of wordnet
  4. 9
    To feel a swarming sensation. intransitive

    "The horrible sight made my skin crawl."

  5. 10
    feel as if crawling with insects wordnet
  6. 11
    To swim using the crawl stroke. intransitive, transitive

    "I think I’ll crawl the next hundred metres."

  7. 12
    To move over (an area) on hands and knees. transitive

    "The baby crawled the entire second floor."

  8. 13
    To move over (an area) slowly, with frequent stops. transitive

    "They crawled the downtown bars."

  9. 14
    To visit files or web sites in order to index them for searching. Internet, transitive

    "Yahoo Search has updated its Slurp Crawler to crawl websites faster and more efficiently."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbelen, German Low German krabbeln, German krabbeln), frequentative of *krabbōną (“to scratch, scrape”). Compare also Saterland Frisian krauelje (“to crawl, scuttle”), West Frisian kreauwelje (“to crawl”), Dutch krevelen, krieuwelen (“to crawl”), German Low German kribbeln, German kribbeln (“to creep, crawl, tingle”). See also crab, crabble.

Etymology 2

From Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbelen, German Low German krabbeln, German krabbeln), frequentative of *krabbōną (“to scratch, scrape”). Compare also Saterland Frisian krauelje (“to crawl, scuttle”), West Frisian kreauwelje (“to crawl”), Dutch krevelen, krieuwelen (“to crawl”), German Low German kribbeln, German kribbeln (“to creep, crawl, tingle”). See also crab, crabble.

Etymology 3

Compare kraal.

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