crab

The word “crab” means a sea creature with a hard shell, pincers, and a sideways walk. In plain terms, the sea creature, or, informally, to complain.

“Crab” is pronounced krab (/kɹæb/ in IPA).

Here is “crab” used in a sentence: “We caught a bucket of crabs off the pier.”

Words with a similar meaning to “crab” include crab apple.

Depending on how it is used, “crab” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “crab” comes from Old English. From Old English crabba, an ancient Germanic word for the shelled sea creature; the "complain" sense likely grew from the animal's irritable, snapping reputation.

“Crab” is an uncommon word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Crab” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a sea creature with a hard shell, pincers, and a sideways walk.

When crab means to complain or grumble, it describes irritable speech, as in "he crabbed about the delay." When it describes movement, crab means to drift or move sideways off a straight course, a term especially used for aircraft flying at an angle into a crosswind to stay on their intended path.

Pilots deliberately crab an aircraft, pointing its nose slightly into a crosswind, to counteract the wind's sideways push and keep the plane tracking straight over the runway. Just before touchdown, the pilot typically straightens the aircraft to align the wheels with the runway.

A crab's body shape and the structure of its legs make sideways movement more efficient than moving forward, since its jointed legs bend most easily in that direction. This sideways gait is so distinctive that it gave rise to the verb sense of "crabbing," meaning to move or drift sideways.