crawling


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Related to crawling: Web crawling

crawl 1

 (krôl)
intr.v. crawled, crawl·ing, crawls
1. To move slowly on the hands and knees or by dragging the body along the ground; creep: The baby crawled across the floor.
2. To advance slowly, feebly, laboriously, or with frequent stops: We crawled along in traffic until we reached the highway.
3. To proceed or act servilely: "She was going to come crawling back to me, eloquently detailing exactly how sorry she was" (Emily Griffin).
4. To be or feel as if swarming or covered with moving things: The accident scene was crawling with police officers. My flesh crawled in horror.
5. To swim the crawl.
n.
1. The action of moving slowly on the hands or knees or dragging the body along the ground.
2. An extremely slow pace: Traffic was moving at a crawl.
3. Sports A rapid swimming stroke consisting of alternating overarm strokes and a flutter kick.
4. A set of letters or figures that move across, up, or down a movie or television screen, usually giving information, such as film credits or weather alerts. Also called crawler.
5. A social activity that consists of going to a series of related establishments one after the other: a bar crawl; a museum crawl.

[Middle English craulen, from Old Norse krafla; see gerbh- in Indo-European roots.]

crawl′ing·ly adv.

crawl 2

 (krôl)
n. Archaic
A pen in shallow water, as for confining fish or turtles.

[Afrikaans kraal, enclosure for animals; see kraal.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

crawling

(ˈkrɔːlɪŋ)
n
(Building) a defect in freshly applied paint or varnish characterized by bare patches and ridging
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.crawling - a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the bodycrawling - a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body; "a crawl was all that the injured man could manage"; "the traffic moved at a creep"
locomotion, travel - self-propelled movement
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

crawling

[ˈkrɔːlɪŋ] adj
to be crawling with (pejorative)grouiller de
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

crawling

adj insect, movementkriechend, krabbelnd; a baby at the crawling stageein Baby im Krabbelalter ? also crawl
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
References in classic literature ?
They were always crawling and sprawling toward it, and being driven back from it by their mother.
`As I stared at this sinister apparition crawling towards me, I felt a tickling on my cheek as though a fly had lighted there.
There were little go-carts ordered from England, and appliances for learning to walk, and a sofa after the fashion of a billiard table, purposely constructed for crawling, and swings and baths, all of special pattern, and modern.
Here we constructed a hut, in much the same way as before, and crawling into it, endeavoured to forget our sufferings.
That is all, the drunkenness of life, the stirring and crawling of the yeast, the babbling of the life that is insane with consciousness that it is alive.
He tried again and again, then contented himself with crawling about on hands and knees.
With its faint, grey streaks came the savages of Bekwando, crawling up in a semicircle through the long, rough grass, then suddenly, at a signal, bounding upright with spears poised in their hands - an ugly sight in the dim dawn for men chilled with the moist, damp air and only half-awake.
Crawling on all fours, I made steadily but slowly towards them, till at last, raising my head to an aperture among the leaves, I could see clear down into a little green dell beside the marsh, and closely set about with trees, where Long John Silver and another of the crew stood face to face in conversation.
The Professor discovered me in the act of crawling across the hearth, and before I could escape he had caught me between his thumb and forefinger.
The impact hurled them both to the ground and as Tara of Helium sprang to her feet again she saw, to her horror, that the loathsome head had rolled from the body and was now crawling away from her on six short, spider-]ike legs.
George but encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead of doing battle with the great monster of the deep.
A mass of rock would soon hide them from my view; but so keen was the excitement of the instant that I could not refrain from crawling forward to a point whence I could watch the dashing of the small craft to pieces on the jagged rocks that loomed before her, al-though I risked discovery from above to accomplish my design.