Crawl
[krɔːl] or [krɔl]
Definition
(noun.) 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'.
(noun.) a very slow movement; 'the traffic advanced at a crawl'.
(noun.) a swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick.
(verb.) move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground; 'The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed'.
(verb.) swim by doing the crawl; 'European children learn the breast stroke; they often don't know how to crawl'.
(verb.) be full of; 'The old cheese was crawling with maggots'.
(verb.) feel as if crawling with insects; 'My skin crawled--I was terrified'.
Typist: Willie--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and knees; to creep.
(v. i.) to move or advance in a feeble, slow, or timorous manner.
(v. i.) To advance slowly and furtively; to insinuate one's self; to advance or gain influence by servile or obsequious conduct.
(v. i.) To have a sensation as of insect creeping over the body; as, the flesh crawls. See Creep, v. i., 7.
(n.) The act or motion of crawling; slow motion, as of a creeping animal.
(n.) A pen or inclosure of stakes and hurdles on the seacoast, for holding fish.
Editor: Seth
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Creep.
Editor: Melinda
Definition
n. a pen for keeping fish: a kraal.
v.i. to move slowly along the ground as a worm: to creep: to move feebly stealthily or sneakingly: to be covered with crawling things.—n. the act of crawling.—ns. Crawl′er one who or that which crawls: a reptile; Crawl′ing.—adv. Crawl′y (coll.) with a creepy feeling.
Editor: Robert
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream that you are crawling on the ground, and hurt your hand, you may expect humiliating tasks to be placed on you. To crawl over rough places and stones, indicates that you have not taken proper advantage of your opportunities. A young woman, after dreaming of crawling, if not very careful of her conduct, will lose the respect of her lover. To crawl in mire with others, denotes depression in business and loss of credit. Your friends will have cause to censure you.
Checker: Virgil
Examples
- Twill make my skin crawl when I think of it in bed alone. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- As a general thing, strangers who crawl in there to sleep do not get up until they are called. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- It is very well to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Why, if we were all as industrious as you, little Busy-Body, we should begin to work as soon as we could crawl, and there would be a bad thing! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Why don't you crawl in and look for them inside the skin? Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- I shall dream of it nights and nights, I suppose; but I shall always swear my flesh don't crawl when I think o't! Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Herein he was quite accurate; it being his habit, not to jump, or leap, or make an upward spring, at anything in life, but to crawl at everything. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Stooping, he crawled into the shelter beside the wounded officer, and placed a cool hand upon his forehead. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- At evening he crawled slowly back; and he used to go of nights to a little club at a tavern, where he disposed of the finances of the nation. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I crawled down between the gondola and the shelter of the high freight-car behind. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- My forehead hit something that gave me a violent bump and I felt blood on my face but I crawled on in and lay flat. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- Monks went at once into the street; and the Jew crawled upstairs again for the money. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- The Martian had crawled to my side and with staring eyes fixed on the single panel before us we waited in the silence of death. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Silently we dropped to the deserted deck, and on hands and knees crawled toward the hatchway. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- When he asked what should such fellows as he do crawling between earth and heaven, he was encouraged with loud cries of Hear, hear! Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Crawling, guv'ner, again a wall-- True, Phil--shouldering your way on-- In a night-cap! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- These crawling things had fascinated my attention, and I was watching them from a distance, when Miss Havisham laid a hand upon my shoulder. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- At last, by a sudden impulse, just as our train was crawling out of a suburban station, he sprang on to the platform and pulled me out after him. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Must man, the heaven-climber, be for ever the victim of the crawling reptiles of his species! Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Dr. Cruger saw a continual procession of bees thus crawling out of their involuntary bath. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Do you not see that it is no use now to be crawling a little way after men of the last century--men like Bryant--and correcting their mistakes? George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- More restless than he was, he crawls out of his house, and looks at me, and wanders to the door, and whines to go upstairs. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
Checked by Carlton