crawl

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To creep

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

   • Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.
   • 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.
2. 2

   To move forward slowly, with frequent stops.

   • The rush-hour traffic crawled around the bypass.
3. 3

   To act in a servile manner.

   • 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
4. ›+ 12 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Followed by with

      Followed by with: see crawl with.

   2. 5

      To feel a swarming sensation.

      • The horrible sight made my skin crawl.
   3. 6

      To swim using the crawl stroke.

      • I think I’ll crawl the next hundred metres.
   4. 7

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

      • The baby crawled the entire second floor.
   5. 8

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

      • They crawled the downtown bars.
      • "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; […]
   6. 9

      To visit files or web sites in order to index them for searching.

      • Yahoo Search has updated its Slurp Crawler to crawl websites faster and more efficiently.
   7. 10

      The act of moving slowly on hands and knees, etc.

   8. 11

      The act of sequentially visiting a series of similar establishments (i.e., a bar crawl).

   9. 12

      A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick.

   10. 13

       A very slow pace.

       • My computer has slowed down to a crawl since I installed that software package.
   11. 14

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

   12. 15

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

The neighborhood

• synonymcreep
• synonyminch
• synonymplod
• synonymscuttle
• synonymwriggle
• antonymrun
• antonymwalk
• antonymsprint
• antonymlope
• neighbortrudge
• neighborsneak
• neighbormove slowly
• neighborarmy crawl
• neighborgrovel