Contextualizebeta

crouch

verb
/kɹaʊt͡ʃ/

Etymology

From Middle English crouchen (“to bend, crouch”), variant of croken (“to bend, crook”), from crok (“crook, hook”), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”), from Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerg- (“wicker, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind, weave”). Compare Middle Dutch krōken (“to crook, curl”). More at crook.

  1. derived from *ger-✻ — “to turn, wind, weave”
  2. derived from *gerg-✻ — “wicker, bend”
  3. derived from *krōkaz✻ — “hook”
  4. derived from krókr — “hook”
  5. inherited from crouchen — “to bend, crouch”

Definitions

  1. To bend down

    To bend down; to stoop low; to stand close to the ground with legs bent, like an animal when waiting for prey, or someone in fear.

    • We crouched behind the low wall until the squad of soldiers had passed by.
    • Archer and Jacob jumped up from behind the mound where they had been crouching with the intention of springing upon their mother unexpectedly, and they all began to walk slowly home.

  2. To bend servilely

    To bend servilely; to bow in reverence or humility.

    • kings ſhall crouch vnto our conquering ſwords, And hoſtes of Souldiers ſtand amazd at vs, When with their fearfull tongues they ſhall confeſſe Theſe are the men that al the world admires,
    • Must I stand and crouch Under your testy humour?
    • a crouching purpose

  3. A bent or stooped position.

    • The cat waited in a crouch, hidden behind the hedge.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A cross.

    2. To sign with the cross

      To sign with the cross; bless.

    3. A surname.

    4. A ghost town in California.

    5. A city and town in Idaho.

    6. A short tidal river in Essex, England.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at crouch. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01crouch02ground03sky04atmosphere05surrounding06surround07sides08clipping09clip10hug

A definitional loop anchored at crouch. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at crouch

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA