- to move in a prone position with the body resting on or close to the ground, as a worm or caterpillar, or on the hands and knees, as a young child.
- (of plants or vines) to extend tendrils; creep.
- to move or progress slowly or laboriously: The line of cars crawled behind the slow-moving truck.The work just crawled until we got the new machines.
- to behave in a remorseful, abject, or cringing manner: Don't come crawling back to me asking for favors.
- to be, or feel as if, overrun with crawling things: The hut crawled with lizards and insects.
- (of a glaze) to spread unevenly over the surface of a piece.
- (of paint) to raise or contract because of an imperfect bond with the underlying surface.
- to visit or frequent a series of (similar businesses, especially bars): to crawl the neighborhood pubs.
- to digitally survey (websites) using a computer program, as in order to index web pages for a search engine: Search engines are constantly crawling the web.
- the act of crawling; a slow, crawling motion.
- the visiting of a series of similar businesses, especially bars: a beer crawl;a museum crawl.
- a slow pace or rate of progress: Traffic slowed to a crawl.
- a stroke in a prone position, characterized by alternate overarm movements combined with the flutter kick.
- titles that slowly move across a screen, providing information.
- an enclosure in shallow water on the seacoast, as for confining fish, turtles, etc.: a crab crawl.
- to move slowly, either by dragging the body along the ground or on the hands and knees
- to proceed or move along very slowly or laboriously
- to act or behave in a servile manner; fawn; cringe
- to be or feel as if overrun by something unpleasant, esp crawling creatures
- (of insects, worms, snakes, etc) to move with the body close to the ground
- to swim the crawl
- a slow creeping pace or motion
- a stroke in which the feet are kicked like paddles while the arms reach forward and pull back through the water
- an enclosure in shallow, coastal water for fish, lobsters, etc
