crawl
krawl
Crawl (verb) means to move on hands and knees, or drag the body low along a surface. Example: “The baby crawled across the living room floor toward her toy.”
verb
1
To move on hands and knees, or drag the body low along a surface.
"The baby crawled across the living room floor toward her toy."
"Soldiers crawled through the mud to stay below the gunfire."
"The toddler crawled under the table to hide from her dad."
2
To move or progress very slowly.
"Traffic crawled along the highway during rush hour."
"The queue crawled forward while we waited for the shop to open."
"Time seemed to crawl during the dull afternoon lecture."
3
For a computer program to automatically visit and index web pages.
"Search engines crawl billions of pages to build their index."
"The bot crawls every page of the site once a week."
"Our tool will crawl your website and list any broken links."
noun
1
A very slow pace, or a tour of several bars in one night ("bar crawl").
"They organized a pub crawl for the birthday celebration."
"The roadworks slowed the motorway to a crawl all afternoon."
"We joined a bar crawl through the old town on Saturday night."
How to use crawl
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTo move slowly, close to the ground, or (for traffic or a web bot) to move/progress at a crawl.
Common pairings
crawl on all fours
traffic crawled
web crawl
pub crawl
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Word forms
- Plural
- crawls
- Third person singular
- crawls
- Past tense
- crawled
Fill the gap
Can you complete this real example?
The baby _____ across the living room floor toward her toy.
Etymology
From Old Norse krafla, "to crawl or creep" — related to words in Danish and Swedish meaning the same thing.
Synonyms
View more →Antonyms
Related words
Rhymes for crawl
See all rhymes for crawl →Frequently asked questions
What does “crawl” mean?
The word “crawl” means to move on hands and knees, or drag the body low along a surface. In plain terms, to move slowly, close to the ground, or (for traffic or a web bot) to move/progress at a crawl.
How do you pronounce “crawl”?
“Crawl” is pronounced krawl (/kɹɔːl/ in IPA).
How do you use “crawl” in a sentence?
Here is “crawl” used in a sentence: “The baby crawled across the living room floor toward her toy.”
What is another word for “crawl”?
Words with a similar meaning to “crawl” include creep, inch, plod, scuttle and wriggle.
What is the opposite of “crawl”?
The opposite of “crawl” — its antonyms — are run, walk, sprint and lope.
What part of speech is “crawl”?
Depending on how it is used, “crawl” can be a verb and a noun.
Where does the word “crawl” come from?
The word “crawl” comes from Old Norse. From Old Norse krafla, "to crawl or creep" — related to words in Danish and Swedish meaning the same thing.
Is “crawl” a common word?
“Crawl” is an uncommon word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.
What is the difference between crawl and crab as verbs of movement?
Crawl describes moving on hands and knees or dragging the body low along a surface, or more generally progressing very slowly, while crab specifically describes sideways drifting movement, as with an aircraft in a crosswind. Crawl is the broader, more common term for slow or low movement in any direction.
What does it mean for a search engine to crawl the web?
When a computer program crawls the web, it automatically and systematically visits web pages, following links from one page to another, in order to collect and index their content. Search engines rely on this process, often called web crawling, to build the indexes that power search results.
What is a bar crawl?
A bar crawl is a social outing in which a group visits several bars in one night, typically having a drink at each stop before moving to the next. The term draws on the noun sense of crawl as a slow, extended journey rather than the physical movement of crawling.
Example sentences
Sentences with a source are quoted from published work. Any opinions in them are those of the original source and do not reflect the views of FreeDict.com.
Traffic dropped to a crawl for three miles after the junction.
The last week before the holiday crawled by.
The queue crawled forward a few steps at a time all morning.
A bot that crawls a site too quickly is usually blocked long before it finishes.
He crawled under the desk to find the cable that had worked its way loose.
You can crawl a whole documentation site page by page, setting how deep to go and which paths to follow.
From
Web Crawler API
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