crawl

SayKRAWL/kɹɔl/UK/kɹɔːl/AUS/kɹoːl/

Noun pluralcrawls

15 meanings of crawl

1
verbintransitive
To move slowly on your hands and knees, or with your body close to the ground.
The baby can crawl across the living room now.
A green lizard crawled along the warm rock.
Similarcreep, slither, wriggle, inch
Note
2
nounfiguratively
A very slow speed, especially when something usually moves much faster.
Like a snail crossing a sidewalk: moving, but only just.
Traffic slowed to a crawl near the stadium.
Work on the report went at a crawl after lunch.
3
verbintransitive
To move forward very slowly, stopping often along the way.
Cars crawl through downtown during rush hour.
The bus crawled from stop to stop in the heavy snow.
Similarcreep, inch, trundle, dawdle
Oppositerace, speed, zoom
4
noun
A fast way of swimming, using one arm over your head at a time and quick kicks.
She swims the crawl faster than anyone on the team.
He learned the crawl at summer camp last year.
Similarfreestyle
5
verbtransitive or intransitive
To swim using the crawl stroke, moving one arm over your head at a time.
She crawled the last lap to win the race.
The swimmers crawl across the lake every summer morning.
6
nouncountable
A trip where you visit several places of the same kind, one after another.
Our taco crawl took us to five food trucks in one night.
They planned a crawl of the best bakeries downtown.
Similartour, circuit, round
7
nouncountable
The act of moving slowly on your hands and knees.
The baby's first crawl across the kitchen made everyone cheer.
Getting under the porch meant a long crawl through the dirt.
8
verbtransitive
To move across a place on your hands and knees.
The kids crawl the whole playground tunnel every recess.
Rescuers crawled the collapsed hallway searching for survivors.
9
verbtransitive
To travel across a place very slowly, stopping many times.
Tour buses crawl the old quarter so visitors can take photos.
We crawled the coast road, pulling over at every viewpoint.
Similarcruise, prowl, creep
Note
10
verbintransitive
To behave in a weak, too-eager way to please someone powerful.
He will crawl to the manager just to keep his job.
Crawling to the critics never earned the writer any respect.
Similargrovel, kowtow
Note

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English crawlen, from Old Norse krafla, from an old Germanic word meaning 'to scratch or scrape'.