Pronunciations (8)
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/kɹɔːl/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/kɹoːl/
Pronunciation notes
- British
- Southern
- Standard
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/kɹaːl/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
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/kɾɔl/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
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/kɾɔːl/
Pronunciation notes
- Wales
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/kɹɔl/
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/kɹɑl/
Pronunciation notes
- cot-caught-merger
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/kɹoːl/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
Verb
To move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.
More examples (4)
A VVorm finds vvhat it ſearches after, only by Feeling, as it cravvls from one thing to another. VVhereas a Man, having Eyes, ſees it in a Moment, all before him.
'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.[…]'
The other species was a scale worm, Lepidonotus cirratus, which, when undisturbed, crawled rapidly about, reminding one of a centipede, but with the addition of numbers of hairy spines at each side and over-lapping scales.
[…] a large group of tornits approached, crawling over floor, wall and ceiling alike, their golden animal eyes glinting against the light of the occasional mushroom.
To move or progress slowly or laboriously, or with great difficulty (for example due to feebleness) or frequent stops.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The rush-hour traffic crawled around the bypass.
[…] and catching hold with his hand upon the rough cragges, […] he crawled up to the toppe thereof
More examples (3)
While we Vnburthen'd crawle toward death.
Sickneese posteth to us, but crawleth from us.
Months and seasons crawled along,
To advance by guile and servility; to act in a servile manner, trying to please someone in order to gain favor.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Don’t come crawling to me with your useless apologies!
Our hard-ruled king. Again, there is sprung up. An heretic, an arch one, Cranmer; one. Hath crawled into the favour of the king
To spread by extending tendrils, stems, or branches; to creep or trail (as a vine).
- Examples
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The old house was covered in vines crawling over every available surface.
A little […] Nerve […] which crawls up and down the Coat of the Liver.
More examples (1)
Passion-flowers, ipomaeas, and hibiscus crawled over every wall.
To swim using the crawl stroke.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Examples
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I think I'll crawl instead of breaststroke.
I think I'll crawl the next hundred metres.
Followed by with: see crawl with.
Usage- Intransitive
To feel a swarming sensation; to have a sensation like that produced by insects crawling over one's body.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The horrible sight made my skin crawl.
[Their] dirtiness positively made me crawl.
To spread unevenly; to fail to be or remain evenly spread.
Usage- Intransitive
- of paint or varnish
To move over (an area) on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The baby crawled the entire second floor.
[…] the nightmare horrors that crawled the reeking walls and floor.
More examples (2)
His Slav features regarded me with the wooden indifference he would have shown to an insect crawling the wall.
Wilbur thought of Ronnie being up above. He crawled the ladder as fast as he could, […]
To move over (an area) slowly, with frequent stops.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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They crawled the downtown bars.
More examples (3)
"I used to crawl the Dungeon like you do, Bell, saving up money... But one day, I screwed verything up. Got thoroughly wrecked by a monster, and it ate my right arm."
Eric had crawled the downtown bar scene with these guys many nights, after gigs and back when they were all in college together. Eric liked hanging with them, because they were as comfortable hanging anywhere—sports bars; gay clubs; […]
One of the later Crawl trailers, the Nintendo Switch version, advertises its key gameplay in a sentence, “Crawl the dungeon while your friends possess the traps, beasts, and bosses against you” before later adopting the phrase […]
To visit (files or web sites) in order to index them for searching.
Usage- Internet
- Transitive
- Examples
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Yahoo Search has updated its Slurp Crawler to crawl websites faster and more efficiently.
Noun
The act of moving slowly on hands and knees, etc.
The act of sequentially visiting a series of similar establishments (i.e., a bar crawl).
A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick.
A very slow pace.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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My computer has slowed down to a crawl since I installed that software package.
A piece of horizontally or vertically scrolling text overlaid on the main image.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games 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.
Noun
A pen or enclosure of stakes and hurdles for holding fish.
Noun
a very slow movement
- Examples
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the traffic advanced at a crawl
a swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a crawl was all that the injured man could manage
the traffic moved at a creep
Verb
move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed
feel as if crawling with insects
- Broader terms
- Examples
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My skin crawled — I was terrified
be full of
- Examples
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The old cheese was crawling with maggots
show submission or fear
swim by doing the crawl
- Broader terms
- Examples
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European children learn the breast stroke; they often don't know how to crawl