crawl

1 of 2

verb

ˈkrȯl 

crawled; crawling; crawls

intransitive verb

1

a

: to move on one's hands and knees

The baby crawled toward her mother.

b

: to move slowly in a prone position without or as if without the use of limbs

The snake crawled into its hole.

The soldiers crawled forward on their bellies.

2

: to move or progress slowly or laboriously

traffic crawling along at 10 miles an hour

3

: to advance by guile or servility

crawling into favor by toadying to his boss

4

: to spread by extending stems or tendrils

a crawling vine

5

a

: to be alive or swarming with or as if with creeping things

a kitchen crawling with ants

b

: to have the sensation of insects creeping over one

The story made her flesh crawl.

6

: to fail to stay evenly spread

—used of paint, varnish, or glaze

transitive verb

1

: to move upon in or as if in a creeping manner

all the creatures that crawl the earth

2

: to reprove harshly

… they got no good right to crawl me for what I wrote …

—Marjorie K. Rawlings

3

of a search engine : to visit and index (websites) for future database queries

This would apparently be a bit like online publishers … [telling] search engines such as Google not to crawl their sites.

—David Meyer

crawl

2 of 2

noun

plural crawls

1

a

: the act or action of crawling

A child's early developmental stages, be it their first crawl or their first step, is something parents eagerly anticipate and cherish.

—Malvika Hemanth

b

: slow or laborious progress

Traffic slowed to a crawl.

It [Hurricane Ian] swamped city streets with water and smashed trees along the coast while moving at a crawl that threatened catastrophic flooding across a wide area.

—Mark Heim

c

chiefly British : the visiting of various pubs in succession especially as a social activity

… tourists have also recently been reported doing a crawl around the London pubs where Karl Marx allegedly used to get drunk.

—Jeremy Atiyah

see also bar crawl, pub crawl

d

: a themed event that involves visiting multiple establishments of a similar kind in succession

A shuttle will run throughout the day to take visitors to the various locations on the art crawl and visit the 15 vendors who've created works for the shopping event.

—Sarah Colburn

In New Jersey, there's no shortage of experiential tourism for foodies, from food crawls in Jersey City to … farms in Hunterdon County …

—Kimberly Redmond

A lit crawl is like a pub crawl, except (perhaps) you won't have a headache the next day. You will, however, wake up to find your head stuffed with glorious words and (perhaps) to see a new stack of books on your bedside table.

—Laurie Hertzel

2

or crawl stroke plural crawl strokes : a fast swimming stroke executed in a prone position with alternating overarm strokes and a flutter kick

She did the crawl with her head above the water …

—Cathrin Bradbury

… slicing through the water with a powerful crawl stroke …

—Elizabeth Shepherd

called also freestyle

3

: lettering that moves vertically or horizontally across an electronic display (as of a television or computer monitor) or movie screen to give information (such as performer credits or news bulletins)

… the opening crawl, the sprawling wall of slowly scrolling text that crept up from the bottom of the screen …

—Dan Casey

The message was displayed as a news crawl on … computers, and text messages were sent to visitors.

—Molly Walsh

Synonyms

Verb

• belly
• creep
• grovel
• slide
• slither
• snake
• worm
• wriggle

Examples of crawl in a Sentence

Verb

Does the baby crawl yet?

We got down on our knees and crawled through a small opening.

The baby crawled across the floor toward her mother.

The soldiers crawled forward on their bellies.

The snake crawled into its hole.

They're doing construction on the road, so traffic is crawling.

I worked late into the night, and it was 2 a.m. before I finally crawled into bed.

The bus crawled along the rough and narrow road.

The days slowly crawled by.

Work on the project has crawled to a standstill.

Noun

Near the construction site, traffic had slowed to a crawl.

The bus was moving along at a crawl.

Her strongest stroke is the crawl.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

Like many other politicians who once opposed Trump, DeSantis crawled to Mar-a-Lago on hands and knees to beg forgiveness after flaming out against Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. —Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, Orlando Sentinel, 20 Dec. 2024

Ameer Abdullah and Dylan Laube are the next healthy options on the depth chart as the Raiders crawl to the finish line of a horrid 2-11 season. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 17 Dec. 2024

Noun

This James Beard Award winner and America’s 50 Best destination is a worthy stop on any New Orleans cocktail crawl, coupling classic techniques with seasonal flavors. —Nicole Kliest, Vogue, 24 Dec. 2024

Careful pencil marks are placed on an aesthetic pedestal, while the speed of a camera’s shutter-click in shooting the source material is slowed to the crawl of a careful drawing. —Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English, from Old Norse krafla

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing crawl

• bar crawl
• come/crawl out of the woodwork
• crawl space
• crawl stroke
• crawl to a stop/standstill
• make someone's flesh crawl/creep
• make someone's skin crawl/creep
• make someone's skin/flesh crawl
• news crawl
• opening crawl
• pub crawl

Kids Definition

crawl

1 of 2 verb

ˈkrȯl 

1

: to move slowly with the body close to the ground : move on hands and knees

2

: to move along slowly

the bus crawled along

3

: to be covered with or have the feeling of being covered with creeping things

the floor was crawling with ants

crawler noun

crawl

2 of 2 noun

1

: the act or motion of crawling

2

: a swimming stroke performed facedown in the water and using overarm strokes and rapid alternating kicks