crawl

crawl¹ [kro:l US kro:l] v

[Date: 1300-1400; : Old Norse; Origin: krafla]

1.) to move along on your hands and knees with your body close to the ground

crawl along/across etc

▪ The baby crawled across the floor.

2.) if an insect crawls, it moves using its legs

crawl over/up etc

▪ There's a bug crawling up your leg.

3.) crawl into/out of bed

to get into or out of bed slowly because you are very tired

▪ We crawled into bed at 2 am.

4.) if a vehicle crawls, it moves forward very slowly

crawl by/along etc

▪ The traffic was crawling along.

5.) [i]BrE informal to be too pleasant or helpful to someone in authority, especially because you want them to help you - used in order to show disapproval

crawl to

▪ She's always crawling to the boss.

6.) be crawling with sth

to be completely covered with insects, people etc

▪ The floor was crawling with ants.

▪ The whole place was crawling with cops.

7.) crawl the Net/web

if a computer program crawls the Net, it quickly searches the Internet to find the particular information you need

→↑spider

▪ robots that crawl the net searching out e-mail addresses for junk mailing

crawl ²

crawl² n [singular]

1.) a very slow speed

▪ The traffic had slowed to a crawl.

2.) the crawl

a way of swimming in which you lie on your stomach and move one arm, and then the other, over your head

→↑backstroke, breaststroke ↑breaststroke, butterfly ↑butterfly