Crab
[kræb]
Definition
(noun.) a stroke of the oar that either misses the water or digs too deeply; 'he caught a crab and lost the race'.
(noun.) decapod having eyes on short stalks and a broad flattened carapace with a small abdomen folded under the thorax and pincers.
(noun.) the edible flesh of any of various crabs.
(noun.) a quarrelsome grouch.
(verb.) fish for crab.
(verb.) scurry sideways like a crab.
(verb.) direct (an aircraft) into a crosswind.
Typist: Shane--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One of the brachyuran Crustacea. They are mostly marine, and usually have a broad, short body, covered with a strong shell or carapace. The abdomen is small and curled up beneath the body.
(n.) The zodiacal constellation Cancer.
(a.) A crab apple; -- so named from its harsh taste.
(a.) A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
(a.) A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
(a.) A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.
(a.) A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.
(a.) A claw for anchoring a portable machine.
(v. t.) To make sour or morose; to embitter.
(v. t.) To beat with a crabstick.
(v. i.) To drift sidewise or to leeward, as a vessel.
(a.) Sour; rough; austere.
Typed by Beryl
Definition
n. a popular name applied to any of the short-tailed division of decapod crustaceans: a sign in the zodiac: a portable winch: a sour-tempered person: the lowest throw at hazard—two aces.—adj. Crabb′ed ill-natured: harsh: rough: difficult perplexing.—adv. Crabb′edly.—n. Crabb′edness.—adj. Crab′-faced having a sour peevish countenance.—n. Crab′ite a fossil crab or crayfish.—adj. Crab′-like moving like a crab.—n. Crab′-louse a crab-shaped louse infesting the hair of the pubis &c.—n.pl. Crab's′-eyes the scarlet seeds of an East Indian bead-tree: a concretion of carbonate of lime in the stomach of the cray-fish.—v.i. Crab′-sī′dle to go sideways like a crab.—n.pl. Crab′-yaws a name applied to the tumours of frambœsia on the soles and palms.—Catch a crab in rowing to sink the oar too deeply in the water: to miss the water altogether in making the stroke.
n. a wild bitter apple.—ns. Crab′-stick a stick made out of the crab-tree; Crab′-tree the tree that bears crab-apples.—adj. like a crab-tree crooked.
Checked by Anita
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of crabs, indicates that you will have many complicated affairs, for the solving of which you will be forced to exert the soundest judgment. This dream portends to lovers a long and difficult courtship.
Inputed by Carter
Examples
- The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out on each side. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- The holes, which usually are about a foot deep, are made by the crab persistently digging up and carrying away little masses of mud or sand. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Probably the most interesting of them all is the great Robber-crab, which is found on certain islands of the Pacific. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- We use the crab-apple for preserving even now, although man’s ingenuity has succeeded in inducing nature to give us many better tasting kinds. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- And they lie all tumbled about on the green, like the crab-apples that you shake down to your swine. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- When he is doing this the crab presents a very funny appearance. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- What Kind of a Crab Climbs Trees? Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- It had a pale ruddy sea-bottom, with black crabs and sea-weed moving sinuously under a transparent sea, that passed into flamy ruddiness above. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Here Darwin observed crabs of monstrous size, with a structure which ena bled them to open the cocoanuts. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Besides the water-crabs that we are most of us used to seeing and eating, there are several different kinds of land-crabs. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The gills of crustaceans, such as the crabs which run about in the air, are protected by the gill-cover extensions of the back shell or carapace. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Why do They Call Them Fiddler-Crabs? Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Again he laughed, and said: 'Change it with Ursula, for the crabs. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Then I began to catch crabs and soon I was just chopping along again with a thin brown taste of bile from having rowed too hard after the brandy. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- Everybody thinks me crabbed and odd (with perfect justice); and everybody thinks her sweet-tempered and charming (with more justice still). Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Speak up, you crabbed image for the sign of a walking-stick shop, and say you saw him put it there! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Crabbed and crusty as ever! Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- A crabbed dialogue terminated in my being called une petite moqueuse et sans-coeur, and in Monsieur's temporary departure. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- His sisters were gone to Morton in my stead: I sat reading Schiller; he, deciphering his crabbed Oriental scrolls. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- She had sat up of nights conning lessons and spelling over crabbed grammars and geography books in order to teach them to Georgy. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- It is, especially such a language as this crabbed but glorious Deutsch. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
Inputed by Dustin