crawl

[[t]krɔ͟ːl[/t]]

crawls, crawling, crawled

1) VERB When you crawl, you move forward on your hands and knees.

Don't worry if your baby seems a little reluctant to crawl or walk...

[V prep/adv] I began to crawl on my hands and knees towards the door...

[V prep/adv] As he tried to crawl away, he was hit in the shoulder.

2) VERB When an insect crawls somewhere, it moves there quite slowly.

[V prep] I watched the moth crawl up the outside of the lampshade.

3) VERB If someone or something crawls somewhere, they move or progress slowly or with great difficulty.

[V prep/adv] I crawled out of bed at nine-thirty...

[V prep/adv] They had not foreseen the higher inflation in France when most of Western Europe was crawling out of recession...

Hairpin turns force the car to crawl at 10 miles an hour in some places.

N-SING: a N

Crawl is also a noun.

The traffic on the approach road slowed to a crawl.

4) VERB: only cont (emphasis) If you say that a place is crawling with people or animals, you are emphasizing that it is full of them. [INFORMAL]

[V with n] This place is crawling with police.

[V with n] ...rock-hard earth littered with rubbish and crawling with vermin.

5) N-SING: the N The crawl is a kind of swimming stroke which you do lying on your front, swinging one arm over your head, and then the other arm.

6) PHRASE: V inflects If something makes your skin crawl or makes your flesh crawl, it makes you feel shocked or disgusted.

I hated this man, his very touch made my skin crawl.

7) → See also , pub crawl