crab
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krabIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹæb
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
The tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
A bad-tempered person.
Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.
verb
intransitive
To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).
To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces.
transitiveusslang
To ruin.
Fish for crab
Scurry sideways like a crab
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
Used this way, crab is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- crabmeat , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use crab
- “We enjoyed a delicious crab dinner by the ocean.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.