| 释义 |
▪ I. crab, n.1|kræb|
Forms: 1 crabba, pl. -an, 2–6 crabbe, 2–3 pl. -en, (5 crabe), 5– crab.
[OE. crabba = ON. krabbi masc., MLG. krabbe, MDu. crabbe, Du. krabbe, krab, fem. (Thence F. crabe 13th c., in 16th c. also crabbe). Allied etymologically to MLG. krēvet, MDu. creeft, Du. kreeft:—OLG. type *kreƀit, *kreƀato, OHG. chrebiȥ, chrebaȥo, MHG. kreb(e)ȥ, kreb(e)ȥe, Ger. krebs (whence F. écrevisse, Eng. crayfish n.). (In no way related to L. carabus, Gr. κάραβος, but to LG. krabben to scratch, claw: see crab v.2 and crawl.)]
1. The common name for decapod crustaceous animals of the tribe Brachyura; applied especially to the edible species found on or near the sea coast in most regions of the world. Also with qualifications applied to other Crustacea and Arachnida which more or less resemble these.
The common edible crab of Britain and Europe is Cancer pagurus; the small green crab, or shore crab is Carcinus Mænas; the edible or blue crab of the United States is Callinectes hastatus. Other genera of Brachyura are known as box-crab, calling-crab, fiddler-crab, lady-crab, land-crab, pea-crab, porcelain-crab, rock-crab, sand-crab, spider-crab, stone-crab, swimming-crab, etc. black crab, a land-crab of the Antilles, Gecarcinus ruricola, so called from the marking of its carapace. The hermit-crab, palm-crab, soldier-crab, tree-crab, belong to the tribe Anomoura. The horse-shoe-crab, Molucca-crab, or king-crab is classed among the Arachnida. glass-crabs are young transparent crustaceans of the families Palinuridæ and Scyllaridæ. Crabs can move in any direction, and frequently walk sideways or backwards, to which characteristic frequent reference is made in language: cf. crab-like, crab-sidle, also crabbed.
c1000ælfric Colloquy in Wr.-Wülcker 94 Hwæt fehst ðu on sæ?..ostran and crabban. c1175Lamb. Hom. 51 Crabbe is an manere of fissce in þere sea. c1300K. Alis. 4943 After crabben and airen hy skippen and lepeth. c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture 600 Breke þe clawes of þe crabbe, þe smalle & þe grete. 1483Cath. Angl. 79 A Crab, piscis est. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 78 One Crab blames another for her backwarde pace, And yet the blamer can none other do. 1579T. Stevens in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 162 We sawe crabs swimming on the water that were red as though they had been sodden. 1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 205 You your selfe Sir, should be old as I am, if like a Crab you could go backward. 1674Ray Collect. Wds., Fishes 105 Spanish Crab..Cancer maias. Besides all these we observed two other sorts of small Crabs. 1779P. Browne Nat. Hist. Jamaica 423 Cancer Ruricolus..The Black or Mountain-Crab. These creatures are very numerous in some parts of Jamaica. 1834McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 318 They run swiftly, and frequently retrograde or move sideways like Crabs. 1855Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 76 The soldier crab is the most hasty and blundering of marine animals. 1880Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 262 The King Crabs are a very peculiar family of Crustaceans. 1885A. Brassey The Trades 215 Black crabs abound in the Palisades and are very fierce.
2. Astron.
a. A zodiacal constellation, lying between Gemini and Leo. Also the fourth of the twelve divisions of the Zodiac, which originally coincided with the constellation; = cancer 2.
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 244 An þæra tacna ys ᵹehaten aries þæt is ramm..Feorða cancer þæt is crabba. 1413Lydg. Pilgr. Sowle v. xiii. (1483) 104 The sonne entred the signe of Cancer which is cleped the Crabbe. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. i. i, When Phebus entred was in Geminy..And horned Dyane then but one degre In the Crabbe had entred. 1601Weever Mirr. Mart. C ij b, Mars loaths the crab, he's in the lions den. 1667Milton P.L. x. 675 Up to the Tropic Crab. 1759Johnson Rasselas 95, I have restrained the rage of the dog-star and mitigated the fervours of the crab. 1860Lockyer Heavens (ed. 3) 372 The next group is situated in the Crab, and is known by the name of Præsepe.
b. Name of a nebula or star-cluster in Taurus.
1868Lockyer Elem. Astron. 30 The Dumb-Bell cluster in Vulpecula and the Crab cluster in Taurus..have been resolved into stars. 1890C. A. Young Uranogr. §23 The so-called ‘Crab Nebula’.
†3. A malignant growth; = cancer 3. rare.
1614W. B. Philosopher's Banquet (ed. 2) 1 The Crabbe, the Gangrene, or the Stone.
4. Short for crab-louse.
1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 488 The..crabs or crab-lice, form Dr. Leach's genus Phtheirius. 1968J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself xii. 139, I kept a stock of Blue Ointment handy for the elimination of crabs. 1970Observer 12 Apr. (Colour Suppl.) 43 Green wings means someone's got gonorrhoea, and yellow wings for something else, like crabs.
5. Angling. The larva of the Stone-fly.
1867F. Francis Angling vii. (1880) 266 The crab or creeper is the larva of the stone fly.
†6. An arch. [rare, only transl. med.L. cancer in same sense.]
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 221 (Mätzn.) Þis work is isett upon sixe crabbes [super sex cancros] of hard marbilston.
7. A machine or apparatus for hoisting or hauling heavy weights: the name being orig. applied to a machine with claws, and transferred to others of like use.
a. A kind of small capstan (see quot. 1764); a portable capstan.
†b. A three-legged frame with tackle for raising heavy weights; a gin. Obs.
c. A portable machine for raising weights, etc., consisting of a frame with a horizontal barrel on which a chain or rope is wound by means of handles and gearing; used in connexion with pulleys, a gin, etc.: a portable winch.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. i. 2 A crab..is an engine of wood of three clawes, placed on the ground in the nature of a Capsterne, for the lanching of ships. 1631E. Pellham God's Power & Prov. in Collect. Voy. (Church.) IV. 815/1 A Halser thereupon we got, which fastning unto our Shallops, we with a Crabb or Capstang, by main force of Hand heaved them out of the Water upon the Shoar. 1739C. Labelye Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge 36 The Masons placed their Crab or Engine, with which they hoisted their Stone. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Crab or Gin..an engine used for mounting guns on their carriages. It is made of three pieces of oak, ash, or other strong wood, of about 14 feet long, two of which are joined by transomes; so that they are wide asunder at bottom, and join at top, on a strong piece of wood..The third piece of the crab is round; one end of it goes into the head, and the other stands on the ground; so that all three make a triangle called the pye. 1764Croker, etc. Dict. Arts & Sc., s.v. Crab..This machine differs from a capstern in having no drum-head, and in having the bars to go entirely through it, and reach from one side of the deck to the other. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 220 Hauled the vessel upon the dry land, by means of a crab, or small capstan. 1851Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 18 Crab, a species of capstan, worked usually by horses, for the purpose of raising or lowering heavy weights, such as pumps, spears, &c., in a shaft. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxix. 402 Brooks has rigged a crab or capstan on the floe. 1862Smiles Engineers II. 221 On the truck were placed two powerful double-purchase crabs or windlasses.
d. The lifting-gear of a crane, travelling on rails and moving the load.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech. I. 644/1 One form of traversing-crane consists of a crab upon a carriage traveling upon rails on the beams overhead in a foundry. 1902Westm. Gaz. 10 June 10/1 The total weight of the crane..is 474 1/4 tons. The crab contains the whole of the mechanism for lifting and traversing, the speed of the traverse being about 26 ft. per minute. 1935Chambers's Encycl. III. 540/2 The overhead traveller in a workshop or factory is a non-revolving crane; its essential parts are the main cross girders, the crab which moves to and fro along the cross girders on rails supported by them... The crab can..lift and shift the load from one part to any other part of the shop.
8. ‘An iron trivet to set over a fire, Cheshire’ (Halliw.).
¶ A cross ill-conditioned person: see crab n.2 6.
9. pl. slang. The lowest throw at hazard, two aces. to come off, turn out crabs: to turn out a failure or disappointment. [This may belong to crab n.2]
1768Ld. Carlisle in Jesse G. Selwyn (1882) II. 238 (Farmer) If you..will play, the best thing I can wish you is, that you may win and never throw crabs. 1777Gamblers 7 Then Hazard rose, and Crabs and Doctors sprung. 1801Sporting Mag. XVII. 7 Dreamt that I had thrown crabs all night, and could not nick seven for the life of me. 1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Tilbury Nogo 51 My next neighbour..called for fresh dice, and selected two of them with the utmost care only to throw ‘crabs’. 1874G. A. Lawrence Hagarene iii (Farmer), My annuity drops with me; and if this throw comes off crabs, there won't be enough to bury me, unless I die a defaulter.
10. Rowing. to catch (rarely cut) a crab: to make a faulty stroke in rowing whereby the oar becomes jammed under water. The resistance of the water against the blade drives the handle against the rower's body with sufficient force (if the boat be in rapid motion) to throw him back out of his seat, and to endanger the capsizing of the boat.
The phrase prob. originated in the humorous suggestion that the rower had caught a crab, which was holding his oar down under water; it does not appear to have any historical connexion with the It. pigliare un granchio ‘to catch a crab’, to make a big blunder or complete mistake, ‘toto cælo errare’; all the quots. given by Manuzzi for this phrase are fig., of conduct, action, etc., e.g. ‘In nessun’ altra cosa l'uom più erra, piglia piu granchi, e fa maggior marroni, che nella cosa della guerra’ (i.e. In no other thing does man err more, catch more crabs, and make greater blunders [lit. spades], than in the matter of war).
The phrase is not uncommonly applied, from similarity of result, to the action of missing the water with the stroke, or to any other action which causes the rower to fall backward; but this (though found in Dictionaries from Grose onward) is an improper use by the uninitiated.
1785Grose Dict. Vulgar Tongue s.v. Crab, To catch a crab, to fall backwards by missing one's stroke in rowing. 1804Sporting Mag. XXIII. 262 Catching crabs, that is, missing the hold they intend to take of the water with their oar. 1806Specif. C. Wilson's Patent No. 2964. 4 It will clear itself of the water, so as the most inexperienced man can never what is technically called catch a crab, or impede the boat's motion by a resistance against the water in rowing. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. i. (1889) 9, I have been down the river..with some other freshmen..though we bungle and cut crabs desperately at present. 1862Nares Seamanship (1882) 151 Q. When laying on your oars under sail, what should be done with them? A. Always fling them out of the rowlocks, and let them rest abaft in the gunwale. If they are left in the rowlocks, and..the loom of the oar were not kept..down, it would ‘catch a crab’. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Catch a crab, in rowing, when an oar gets so far beneath the surface of the water, that the rower cannot recover it in time to prevent his being knocked backwards. 1880Times 27 Sept. 11/3 A boat upset.. because one of the rowers caught a ‘crab’.
11. [After G. krebs crab, unsold copy of a book.] A book returned unsold by a bookseller to the publisher.
1896Bookseller 6 Mar. 278/1 The great bulk of the bookselling business [in Germany] with the publishers, is done by the ‘on sale’ system... These methods seem to work well in Germany, and the number of ‘crabs’, or books returned at the end of the year, is not often very great. 1960Glaister Gloss. of Book 90/1 Crabs, a colloquialism for copies of a book returned by the bookseller to the publisher.
12. Naut. slang. A midshipman, esp. a junior midshipman or naval cadet.
1916Chambers's Jrnl. July 435/1 The sub, assisted by the senior ‘snotties’, had drilled the Crabs into a high state of discipline and efficiency. 1916‘Taffrail’ Carry On! 43 To the senior Sub-Lieutenant..the newly joined Midshipmen are ‘crabs’ or ‘warts’, mere excrescences on the face of the earth.
13. attrib. and Comb., as crab-computing, crab-eating, crab-fishing, crab-gauge, crab-racing, crab-trap; (sense 7) crab-capstan, crab-engine, crab-winch, crab-windlass; crab-canon Mus. = cancrizans n.; crab-claw, a claw or clutch for grappling or fastening; crab-eating a., that feeds on crabs (sometimes rendering L. cancrivorus); † crab face, an ugly ill-tempered looking face (cf. Sc. partan face, used by the fisher folk: in later use app. associated with crab n.2, cf. crab-tree faced, sour-faced; so crab-faced, crab-favoured; crab-farming, raising crabs in enclosed shallows for the market; crab-hole Austral., a hole burrowed by a land crab; so crab-holed adj.; crab-lobster, the porcelain-crab, an anomourous crustacean; crab-pot, a trap for crabs, a basket or frame of wickerwork so constructed that crabs can readily enter but cannot get out again; crab-pot (valve), in airships, a fabric valve with a sleeve which could be closed like a crab-pot; crab rock (see quot.); crab-roller (Printing), a term for the distributing roller, so called from its diagonal motion; crab's claw, (a) the claw of crabs, formerly used in medicine for the same purpose as crab's-eyes; (b) a water-plant, Water Soldier, Stratiotes Aloides; crab-shell, the carapace of a crab; slang a shoe; crab-snouted (see crab-faced); crab-spider, the name of several species of spiders; crab-step, a sidelong step by a capering horse; crab-stone, a calcareous concretion found in the stomach of crustaceans, previous to the casting of their shells; in crayfish it forms the crab's-eyes; crabwise adv., (moving) sideways or backwards like a crab; also attrib.
1908Strand Mag. Jan. 30/2 Canons, so constructed that they would read the same backwards or forwards. For this reason they were called *Crab Canons. 1959Westrup & Harrison Collins's Music Encycl. 109/2 Crab canon (canon cancrizans) or retrograde canon. The part which imitates is written backwards, beginning with the end. Crab canon by inversion: the part which imitates is written backwards and upside down.
1694Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 107 And instead of Anchors, they have wooden *Crab-claws, or Kellocks.
1780Cowper Error 487 E'en Leeuwenhoek himself would stand aghast..And own his *crab-computing powers o'ercome.
1847Carpenter Zool. §309 The *Crab-eating Opossum is common in Guiana and Brazil, it..prefers marshy situations, where it feeds on crabs. 1883List Animals Zool. Soc. (ed. 8) 82 Procyon cancrivorus, crab-eating raccoon. Ibid. 193 Didelphys cancrivora, crab-eating opossum. 1908Westm. Gaz. 6 June 10/2 Stones are always met with in the stomachs of two species of Antarctic seals. The Crab-eating seal is one of these..swallowing them to act as grindstones, whereby the hard shells of the crabs may be properly broken up. 1932S. Zuckerman Soc. Life Monkeys vi. 89 The length of the cycle in the common or crab-eating macaque is approximately the same as in other macaques. 1954G. Durrell 3 Singles to Adv. vii. 156 It was a broad, flat head with neat rounded ears and a dog-like muzzle. The creature's colouring was ash grey, but across the eyes was a wide black band... ‘A crab-eating raccoon.’ 1966R. & D. Morris Men & Apes i. 20 Crab-eating macaques in Bali are apparently treated with as much deference as the sacred monkeys of India.
1838F. W. Simms Public Wks. Gt. Brit. ii. 22 An ordinary *crab engine was employed in driving the piles.
1719D'Urfey Pills V. 331 Viewing his *crab Face.
1563A. Nevyll in B. Googe Eglogs (Arb.) 22 Such *crab-faced, cankerd, carlish chuffs. 1648Gage West Ind. v. (1655) 14 An old crab-fac'd English Fryer.
1596Harington Metam. Ajax Pref. (1814) 9 Being invited by a *crab-favoured host to a neat house.
1888Times 3 Jan. 10/2 Lobster and *crab fishing.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. p. lxxxiii, Patented aquaria..and *crab and lobster guages.
1848Mrs. Perry in Goodman Church in Victoria (1892) 72 Full of *crab-holes, which are exceedingly dangerous for the horses... These holes are formed by a small land-crab, and then gradually enlarged by the water draining into them. 1891R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. ii. 47 The surface [of the land] was closely pitted with crabhole-like water-hollows. 1903‘T. Collins’ Such is Life 16 Price and Cooper, being cooks had kindled an unobtrusive fire in a crab-hole, where three billies were soon boiling. 1956S. Hope Diggers' Paradise xvii. 157 The ball may be lifted or dropped without penalty from wallaby scrapes, crab holes, ironstone outcrops and tractor marks.
1908Mrs. A. Gunn We of Never-Never xii. 152 One hundred and thirty miles of sun-baked, *crab-holed, practically trackless plains.
1918W. E. Dommett Dict. Aircraft 16 *Crab-pot, a fabric valve used for controlling the inlet of air to the ballonets of a non-rigid airship. 1950Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) I. 53 Crabpot valve, a special type of fabric sleeve the operation of which is controlled by a hand-line.
1793Smeaton Edystone L. §264 They..disengaged the layers of cork..and cut them to pieces for their *Crab-pots and Seines. 1862Ansted Channel Isl. ii. viii. (ed. 2) 180 The rope made from it is especially valuable for crab pots.
1882Society 7 Oct 5/1 One of the latest forms of amusement at French and Belgian seaside resorts is ‘*crab-racing’.
1877A. H. Green Phys. Geol. iv. §4 *Crab Rock, local name of brecciated Permian rocks of Cumberland and Westmoreland.
1710T. Fuller Pharm. Extemp. 30 Take Powder of *Crabs-claws compound..half a scruple. 1758Dossie Elabor. laid open 163 Crabs claws are for the most part sold or used when crabs eyes are demanded or ordered.
1807Beresford Miseries II. xviii. 185 An old *crab-shell, which, in..his antiquarian fury, he shall consider as an inestimable treasure.
1563A. Nevyll in B. Googe Eglogs (Arb.) 21 Those *crabsnowted bestes, Those ragyng feends of hell.
1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. v. ii 260 The Mygales (*Crab Spiders and Mason Spiders).
Ibid. ii. iii. iii. 97 The *Crabs' Stones which are most esteemed come from Astrakan.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 7 *Crab and Lobster Trap.
1877Daily News 10 Oct. 6/2 The upper bolts of chain sheaves, *crab winch, &c., had leaked a little at first.
1904Daily Chron. 6 May 8/1 There are barges in the way, and these have to be coaxed aside before the Adler can approach *crabwise to the wharf. 1926Chambers's Jrnl. 163/1 She went crabwise about the loch. Ibid. 224/1 A crabwise gait. 1927R. A. Freeman Certain Dr. Thorndyke i. iii. 42 He began to advance, crabwise, across the deck in the manner of a wrestler attacking. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! v. 298 The innumerable inversions, augmentations, diminutions and crabwise canons of Schönberg's later works. 1963Times 19 Apr. 5/5 It..swerved out of control and came crabwise down the middle lane and hit my lorry.
▸ crab cake n. orig. U.S. a patty of flaked or minced crabmeat, typically served fried.
1929Denton (Maryland) Jrnl. 15 June 5/6 The menu will consist of *crab cakes, ham, tomato salad, slaw, biscuits, rolls, [etc.]. 2000A. Bourdain Kitchen Confid. (2001) 144, I worked a deserted crab house on Second Avenue, steaming blue crabs and frying crab cakes.
▪ II. crab, n.2|kræb|
Also 5–7 crabbe; 6– scrab.
[Of uncertain origin, appearing first in 15th c.
A Sc. form scrab, scrabbe, is evidenced from beg. of 16th c., and may easily be much older. This is app. from Norse, as Rietz has Sw. dial. skrabba fruit of the wild apple-tree, and may be the original form. In that case crabbe, crab, would be a southern perversion, assimilated to crab n.1 But, on the other hand, this may be only a transferred use of that word: cf. the history and development of crabbed, and the application of crab in various languages to a person. A fruit externally promising, but so crabbed and ill-conditioned in quality, might very naturally be so called; yet actual evidence of the connexion is wanting. (A Sw. krabbäple, which has been cited, is merely the horticultural name of the American Crab-apple, Pyrus Coronaria, introduced with the shrub from the United States.)]
1. The common name of the wild apple, especially connoting its sour, harsh, tart, astringent quality; applied also to cultivated varieties having similar qualities, grown for preserving, making verjuice, etc.
c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 44 Rolle hit on balles..In gretnes of crabbes. c1450Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 594/26 Malum macianum, a Crabbe. Ibid. 715 Hoc arbitum, a crabe. 1477Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 74 As by Faces of People ye maie Deeme, When thei tast Crabs while thei be greene. [1513Douglas æneis vii. iii. 18 With wilde scrabbis and vthir frutis large.] a1536Tindale Wks. 10 (R.) As a man would wryng veriuce out of crabbes. 1605Shakes. Lear i. v. 15 She's as like this, as a Crabbe's like an Apple. 1616R. C. Times' Whistle vi. 2526 They must have veriuice that will squeese such crabbes. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 48/1 The Crab is a small round Apple, growing on Trees in Hedges by the Way sides. 1784Cowper Task i. 121, I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws Or blushing crabs. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. i. 18 Crabs were collected in order to manufacture verjuice.
fig.1615J. Hall Let. in Burnet Life W. Bedell 300 What a sorry crabb [i.e. letter] hath Mr. Waddesworth at last sent us from Sevil? 1878Browning Poets Croisic 109 Weak fruit of idle hours, these crabs of mine I dare lay at thy feet, O Muse divine!
2. The wild apple tree of northern Europe, the original of the common apple (Pyrus Malus).
[1425see crab-tree. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 99 Crabbe tre, acerbus, macianus, arbutus.] 1626Bacon Sylva §507 Blossoms of Trees..those of Apples, Crabs, Almonds, and Peaches, are Blushy and smell sweet. a1679W. Gurnall in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. ci. 6 You would get the best fruit trees, and not cumber your ground with crabs. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 55 The wild Crab is the only Apple indigenous to this country. 1849Thoreau Week Concord Riv., Friday 358 Like the crabs which grow in hedges, they furnish the stocks of sweet..fruits.
fig.1771Smollett Humph. Cl. (1846) 350 The fellow proves to be a crab of my own planting in the days of..unrestrained libertinism.
3. With qualification applied to some cultivated varieties of the apple (tree and fruit), as Minshull crab; and to other species of the genus, as cherry crab (Pyrus baccata), Chinese crab (P. spectabilis), Siberian crab (P. prunifolia), garland crab, or American crab-apple (Pyrus coronaria), and several other North American species.
1657Beale in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 517 The croft Crab and white or red Horse-pear do excel them, and all others. 1858R. Hogg Veg. Kingd. 308 The small Cherry Apple or Scarlet Siberian Crab..used for making quasar punch. 1881M. E. Braddon Asph. vi. 71 The snowy clusters of the American crab..and seringa, lilac, laburnum, guelder rose. 1882Garden 28 Oct. 381/2 The Chinese Crab..[is] a tree unsurpassed in beauty by any of the class.
4. A stick or cudgel made of the wood of the crab-tree; a crab-stick.
1740Garrick Lying Valet i. ii, Out bolts her husband with a fine taper crab in his hand.
5. transf. The potato-apple. dial.
1794J. Holt Agric. Surv. Lanc. 30 Crabs, or oukles, which grow upon the stems [of potatoes]. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Crab, a potato-apple.
6. Applied to persons:
a. as fig. of 1: A sour person.
b. In later use, often a back-formation from crabbed: a crabbed, cross-grained, ill-tempered person. [This might come directly from crab n.1; in Ger. and E. Fris. krabbe crab (the animal) is applied to a cross-grained, fractious person: see crabbed.]
a.1580Baret Alv., A rude pesant, and crabbe of the countrie. 1594Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 230 1605 Tryall Chev. ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 289 And that sowre crab do but leere at thee I shall squeeze him to vargis.
b.1825C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 179 What coming crabb over us, old fellow? Very well, I shall bolt and try Randall, and that's all about it. 1829Lytton Devereux i. iii, I love you better than..that crab of a priest. 1877Holderness Gloss., Crab, a peevish, ill-tempered person. 1881Mrs. E. Lynn Linton My Love I. xiii. 229 But there was not a coward nor a ‘crab’, as they called the crossgrained when speaking among themselves.
¶ crabs in Hazard: see crab n.1 9.
7. attrib. and Comb.
a. Of or pertaining to the crab-apple or crab-tree, as crab blossom, crab kernel, crab verjuice, crab vinegar, etc.;
b. resembling the crab-apple in its sour, harsh taste, or inferiority as fruit, as crab lemon, crab orange, crab vintage, crab wine, etc.; † crab-bat, a crab-tree club or cudgel; † crab-knob attrib., rough and rugged like a crab-tree; † crab-staff = crab-stick; in quot. fig. Also crab-apple, -stick, -stock, -tree, etc.
1647Ward Simp. Cobler 15, I am a *Crabbat against Arbitrary Government.
1888Daily News 22 May 2/2 The glorious profusion of the *crab-blossoms.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 219 *Crab Kernels for Stocks.
1583Stanyhurst Aeneis i. (Arb.) 22 An Island Theare seat, with *crabknob skrude stoans hath framed an hauen.
1697W. Dampier Voy. (1698) I. x. 296 The Lime is a sort of bastard or *Crab-limon..The Fruit is like a Lemon but smaller.
1606Marston Parasitaster iii, She..lookes as sowerly, as if she had beene new squeased out of a *crab orenge.
a1603Queen Elizabeth in Shaks. C. Praise 400 Persius, a *Crab-staff, Bawdy Martiall, Ovid a fine Wag.
1747Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 100 Bathe it in good *Crab verjuice.
1884Farm & Home 25 Oct. 278/3 The old English verjuice, called in the west of England ‘*crab vinegar’.
a1700Dryden (J.), Better gleanings their worn soil can boast Than the *crab vintage of the neighb'ring coast.
1612–5Bp. Hall Contempl. N.T. ii. v, His liberality hated to provide *crab wine for his guests.
▪ III. crab, n.3|kræb|
Corruption of carap, the native name of a South American tree, Carapa guianensis, used in composition: as crab-nut, the nut or seed of this tree; crab-oil (carap oil), the oil obtained from crab-nuts, used for lighting purposes and as an anthelmintic; so crab-tree, crab-wood.
1769E. Bancroft Nat. Hist. Guiana 81 The Caraba, or Crab Tree..consists of numerous branches, covered with long narrow leaves, of a dark green colour. 1849J. F. Bourne in Ecclesiologist IX. 183, I intend to use ‘crab-wood’ for the roof and fittings. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Carap Oil, Crab Oil, an oil obtained in South America from the Carapa guianensis. 1865–66[see carap]. 1866Treas. Bot. 220/2 Crab-wood..is used for making articles of furniture, for shingles, and for the masts and spars of vessels. 1883E. F. Im Thurn Ind. of Guiana xiv. 314 Crab-oil finds a ready sale in the towns. Most of this oil is prepared from the nuts of a very common tree, the crab-wood (Carapa guianensis). Ibid. On the savannah, where crab-nuts are less easily procured.
▪ IV. crab, n.4 colloq.
[f. crab v.2 2.]
The action of crabbing or finding fault; an instance of this; an adverse criticism or objection.
1893Field 11 Mar. 347/1 It will be said I am dreadfully ‘on the crab’, but I believe what I have written is only the simple truth. 1922Autocar 10 Nov. 956 My only crab to them at present is that [etc.]. 1924J. Buchan Three Hostages 25 The crab of the place was its neighbours. 1927Observer 10 July 11 The only ‘crab’ we have against this is that cavalry of old effected most of their success by charging infantry.
▪ V. crab, v.1|kræb|
Also 6–7 crabb; Sc. 5–6 craib, 6–7 crabe.
[f. crabbed a. or its source.]
†1. trans. To go counter to, to cross; to put out of humour or temper; to irritate, anger, enrage, provoke. Sc. ? Obs.
a1400–50Alexander 5323 Qui colkins þou, ser conquirour & crabbis so þi saule. c1450Henryson Mor. Fab. 84 Ane full gude seruant will craib his Master anes. 1461Liber Pluscardensis xi. viii. (1877) I. 383 Thow makis gret falt..All thus but caus to crab thi creatowre. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 563 To contray him or crab in ony thing. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech., Schort Waye 6 b, To put our selues in danger to crab god. 1595Duncan App. Etymol., Offendo, to stumble, to crabbe, to find by chance. a1605Polwart Flyting w. Montgomery 152, I will..swingeour, for thy sake refuse it..To crabe thee.
b. absol. and intr.
a1500Ratis Raving ii. 122 Thai here glaidly, and lytill spekis, Laith for to crab and seldin wrekis. Ibid. iii. 175 Crab nocht lychtly for lytil thing. 1598Fergusson Scot. Prov., He that crabbs without cause should mease without mends.
†2. trans. To render (the disposition, etc.) ill-tempered or peevish; to sour. Obs. rare.
1662Glanvill Lux Orient. iv. (1682) 33 How age or sickness sowers, and crabbs our natures.
▪ VI. crab, v.2|kræb|
[App. the same as Du., LG., E.Fris. krabben to scratch, claw, f. the same root as crab n.1]
1. Falconry. Of hawks: To scratch, claw, or fight with each other.
a. trans.
b. intr.
1575Turberv. Faulconrie 73 That when your hawkes bate, they maye not reache one another for crabbing. Ibid. 114 Some falcons..will crabbe with every hawke and flee of purpose to crabbe with them. 1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. ii. (1706) 57 If you mew more than one Hawk in one Room, you must set your Stones at that distance, that when they bate they may not crab one another. 1852R. F. Burton Falconry v. 60 If two [hawks] are flown they are certain to fell the game at once, and the falconer is always flurried by their violent propensity to crab over the ‘pelt’. 1892Note from Correspt., Two hawks soaring or on the ground will often claw each other, when they are said to ‘crab’.
2. a. trans. To criticize adversely, cry down, find fault with, ‘peck at’, ‘pull to pieces’. slang or stable-talk, whence colloq. Also absol.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., To prevent the perfection or execution of any..business, by saying any thing offensive or unpleasant, is called crabbing it. 1862Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXIII. 385 Owners..will not send their horses to be crabbed and consequently lowered in value because they cannot pass a strict veterinary inspection. 1890Times 6 Dec. 12/4 Officers naturally do not care to be frowned upon as men who ‘want to crab the new rifle’. 1891Maude Merciful Divorce 76 And you ‘crab’ the girl because she is able to take care of herself. 1891F. W. Carew No. 747; Autobiogr. Gipsy xx. 228 Shice..alternately ‘crabbed’ and ‘chy-iked’ as the case might require. 1892Blackw. Mag. CLI. 128/2 To crab the complexions or the clothes of the people who occupied the pew in front. 1906Westm. Gaz. 11 Aug. 1/2 The difference between us and you, said an American who had watched Mr. Chamberlain's Fiscal campaign, is that ‘we boom, and you crab’. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby vii. 127 The thing to do is to forget about the heat... You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it. 1968Listener 4 Apr. 444/2 To no other people can the classic principle of ‘first crib and then crab’ have been so consistently applied.
b. To interfere with or obstruct the working, progress, or success of.
Cf. quots. 1812, 1890 in sense a.
1899R. Whiteing No. 5 John St. xxi. 191 We was crabbed... The mugs might ha' wrecked the show. 1901N.Y. Independent 12 Dec. (Cent. D. Suppl.), The use of foreign tires of course crabbed the deal. 1920Glasgow Herald 18 Aug. 7 Posen contains a large German Irredentist minority, which might crab the Polish military defence. 1922C. Sandburg Slabs of Sunburnt West 66 You're trying to crab my act. 1934E. Bowen Cat Jumps 235 Seeming to crab Patsey's marriage. 1941G. Heyer Envious Casca iv. 62 You've done all you can to crab Willoughby's play. 1955Times 24 May 16/2 You made it your business to crab the performance.
3. ‘To break or bruise. North.’ (Halliwell.)
▪ VII. crab, v.3
[Nonce-uses, derived from crab n.1 and n.2, or their derivatives.]
†1. trans. To beat with a crab-stick; to cudgel.
1619Fletcher M. Thomas iv. vi, Get ye to bed, drab, Or I'll so crab your shoulders.
†2. ? To catch as a crab does. Obs.
1721Cibber Refusal i. Plays II. 386, I hold six to four now, thou hast been crabb'd at Paris in the Missisippi. Granger. Not I, Faith, Sir; I would no more put my Money into the Stocks there, than my Legs into the Stocks here.
3. a. Naut. (See quot.)
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Crabbing to it, carrying an overpress of sail in a fresh gale, by which a ship crabs or drifts sideways to leeward.
b. Aeronaut. To put (an aeroplane) in a position diverging from the straight course; to fly at an angle to the longitudinal axis. Also in other transf. uses (trans. and intr.) and with back, in, on. Also crab n.5, a divergent position.
1929A. C. McKinley Appl. Aerial Photogr. 13 So that..the necessary amount of crab can be obtained at which the airplane must fly. Ibid. 36 Adjusting the Camera for Crab.—On approaching the starting point of each strip the pilot will crab the airplane in order to make allowances for the wind. 1959J. L. Nayler Dict. Aeronaut. Engin. 70 Crab angle, a colloquial term for the angle of yaw. 1962Punch 17 Jan. 134/3 He knows which [TV] cameras can be crabbed (moved sideways). 1964G. Lyall Most Dangerous Game iii. 25, I crabbed in towards him, holding the knife low. Ibid. xviii. 116, I crabbed back to my chair and sat down. 1966‘W. Haggard’ Power House i. 12 Once skidding it [sc. a car] crabbed on helplessly. 1970W. K. Kilford Elem. Air Survey (ed. 2) iv. 89 Crabbing gives rise to loss of stereoscopic cover, since the area of overlap between two consecutive photographs is reduced.
4. U.S. colloq. (fig.) = crawfish v.
5. Dyeing, etc. To subject to the operation of crabbing (vbl. n.3).
1892Prof. Hummel (in letter), Cloth that has not been crabbed.
6. See crabbing2. |