crawl
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krawlIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹɔl
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.
verb
Move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground
“The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed.”
intransitive
To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.
intransitive
To move forward slowly, with frequent stops.
transitive
To move over (an area) on hands and knees.
Swim by doing the crawl; they often don't know how to crawl"
intransitive
To feel a swarming sensation.
noun
The act of sequentially visiting a series of similar establishments (i.e., a bar crawl).
A swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick
A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick.
The act of moving slowly on hands and knees, etc.
A very slow movement
“The traffic advanced at a crawl.”
figurative
A very slow pace.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground
Used this way, crawl is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Move / creepverb
“The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed.”
Slownoun
“The traffic advanced at a crawl.”
More ways to use crawl
- “A crawl was all that the injured man could manage.”noun
- “The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed.”verb
- “The old cheese was crawling with maggots.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body.
A person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Prepare for sleep.
Low space beneath a floor of a building.
Someone who drives slowly along the curb seeking sex from prostitutes or other women.
Go from one pub to the next and get progressively more drunk.
A swimming stroke.
A swimming stroke.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An animal that creeps or crawls (such as worms or spiders or insects).
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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.