crawled; crawling; crawls
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
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
Marjorie K. Rawlings
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
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
Mark Heim
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
Sarah ColburnIn New Jersey, there's no shortage of experiential tourism for foodies, from food crawls in Jersey City to … farms in Hunterdon County …—Kimberly Redmond
Kimberly RedmondA 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
Laurie Hertzel2
: a fast swimming stroke executed in a prone position with alternating overarm strokes and a flutter kick
3
: lettering that moves vertically or horizontally across a television or motion-picture screen to give information (such as performer credits or news bulletins)
Synonyms
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 WebRania Aniftos, Billboard, 26 Apr. 2024
Officials hope the train line will relieve congestion on I-15, where drivers often sit in miles of crawling traffic while returning home to Southern California from a Las Vegas weekend.
—Ken Ritter, Quartz, 23 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for crawl 
Verb
Doja followed up with another photo set in the same swimsuit, this time crawling along a surfboard.
—Rania Aniftos, Billboard, 26 Apr. 2024
Officials hope the train line will relieve congestion on I-15, where drivers often sit in miles of crawling traffic while returning home to Southern California from a Las Vegas weekend.
—Ken Ritter, Quartz, 23 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for crawl
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crawl.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near crawl
Cite this Entry
“Crawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crawl. Accessed 4 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
crawl
1 of 2 verb1
: 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 noun1
: the act or motion of crawling
2
: a swimming method in which the swimmer lies facing down in the water and moves with overarm strokes and a thrashing kick
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