crawl

CEFRB1

/kɹɔːl/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To move slowly on hands and knees or close to the ground.

  2. 02

    verb

    To move very slowly.

Examples

  • Our baby is just starting to crawl.

  • Can you do the crawl?

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /kɹaːl/
  • /kɹoːl/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To advance by guile and servility; to act in a servile manner, trying to please someone in order to gain favor.

  2. To move or progress slowly or laboriously, or with great difficulty (for example due to feebleness) or frequent stops.

  3. To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.

More examples

In context

  • The baby began to crawl.

  • Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.

  • […] a large group of tornits approached, crawling over floor, wall and ceiling alike, their golden animal eyes glinting against the light of the occasional mushroom.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The baby began to blank across the soft carpet toward the toy.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbelen, German Low German krabbeln, German krabbeln), frequentative of *krabbōną (“to scratch, scrape”). Compare also Saterland Frisian krauelje (“to crawl, scuttle”), West Frisian kreauwelje (“to crawl”), Dutch krevelen, krieuwelen (“to crawl”), German Low German kribbeln, German kribbeln (“to creep, crawl, tingle”). See also crab, crabble.