Meaning
Crawl has different meanings depending on context:
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Verb
- To move forward on hands and knees (like a baby or animal).
- To move slowly or with difficulty.
- In swimming, to perform the front crawl stroke.
- (Computing) For search engines to systematically browse the web.
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Noun
- A swimming style (the front crawl).
- A slow movement.
- A sequence of events or places visited one after another (pub crawl).
Grammar and Usage
-
Verb (intransitive):
- to crawl on hands and knees
- traffic crawls along the road
- the baby crawled across the floor
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Noun:
- the front crawl (swimming)
- a pub crawl (visiting multiple pubs in succession)
Variations:
- crawl along: move slowly.
- crawl with: be filled with something (e.g., "The house was crawling with insects").
Common Phrases
- crawl into bed (go to bed slowly, tiredly)
- at a snail’s crawl (extremely slow)
- pub crawl (visit several bars in a row)
- crawling with (full of something, usually negative)
Collocations
- Verb + crawl: crawl slowly, crawl forward, crawl away
- Noun + crawl: traffic crawl, pub crawl, front crawl
- Adjective + crawl: slow crawl, steady crawl, painful crawl
Examples
- The baby crawled across the carpet to reach his toy.
- We had to crawl through the narrow tunnel.
- The traffic crawled along during rush hour.
- She swims the front crawl very quickly.
- The old house was crawling with spiders.
- After a long day, he crawled into bed.
- The hikers crawled to the top of the hill, exhausted.
- They went on a pub crawl downtown.
Synonyms or Related
- Verb: creep, inch, drag, slither
- Noun: shuffle, creep, progression, stroke (swimming)