to move in a prone position with the body resting on or close to the ground, as a worm or caterpillar, or on the hands and knees, as a young child.
(of plants or vines) to extend tendrils; creep.
to move or progress slowly or laboriously: The line of cars crawled behind the slow-moving truck. The work just crawled until we got the new machines.
to behave in a remorseful, abject, or cringing manner: Don't come crawling back to me asking for favors.
to be, or feel as if, overrun with crawling things: The hut crawled with lizards and insects.
Ceramics. (of a glaze) to spread unevenly over the surface of a piece.
(of paint) to raise or contract because of an imperfect bond with the underlying surface.
verb (used with object)
to visit or frequent a series of (similar businesses, especially bars): to crawl the neighborhood pubs.
Digital Technology. to digitally survey (websites) using a computer program, as in order to index web pages for a search engine: Search engines are constantly crawling the web.Compare spider (def. 10).
noun
the act of crawling; a slow, crawling motion.
the visiting of a series of similar businesses, especially bars: a beer crawl; a museum crawl.
a slow pace or rate of progress: Traffic slowed to a crawl.
Swimming. a stroke in a prone position, characterized by alternate overarm movements combined with the flutter kick.
Television, Movies. titles that slowly move across a screen, providing information.
Origin of crawl
1
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English crawlen, from Old Norse krafla; compare Danish kravle “to crawl, creep”
synonym study for crawl
1. Crawl,creep refer to methods of moving like reptiles or worms, or on all fours. They are frequently interchangeable, but crawl is used of a more prostrate movement than creep : A dog afraid of punishment crawls toward his master.Creep expresses slow progress: A child creeps before walking or running.
Efficiency of crawl, as we mentioned above, are the benefits.
GoogleBot to soon crawl over HTTP/2|Barry Schwartz|September 17, 2020|Search Engine Land
The data we gather in TGIF show that in many cases, those solutions often do more harm than good as they are not getting indexed and they make it very difficult to get crawl data that actually reflects your website’s structure as Google sees it.
How to earn your place in Google’s index in 2020|Bartosz Góralewicz|September 14, 2020|Search Engine Land
However, for larger sites, having multiple URLs that host the same content may consume crawl budget and dilute signals, inhibiting a search engine’s ability to index and evaluate your pages.
How content consolidation can help boost your rankings|George Nguyen|September 10, 2020|Search Engine Land
If you start accumulating a bunch of those, they can definitely hurt your crawl limit, to a point where crawlers will eventually stop crawling without getting to the page you need indexed.
Top six ways to optimize crawl budget for SEO|April Brown|September 9, 2020|Search Engine Watch
Although most people might have heard of crawl budgeting, they might have considered using it, to begin with, or even think about it, when it comes to SEO.
Top six ways to optimize crawl budget for SEO|April Brown|September 9, 2020|Search Engine Watch
“Now get on your knees and crawl,” he demanded with the slap of a leather horse crop against the palm of his hand.
Whip It: Secrets of a Dominatrix|Justin Jones|November 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Klain is not the first to crawl out of the swamp of Biden World on to the larger stage.
Where There’s Trouble, You’ll Usually Find Joe Biden|Lloyd Green|October 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Social media is heavily censored, with Instagram blocked and access to various websites operating at a crawl.
Occupy Hong Kong Hangs On|Lennox Samuels|September 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
John Huston recalls in his autobiography, An Open Book, a time when he asked Mitchum to crawl across the grass on his elbows.
The Stacks: Mr. Bad Taste and Trouble Himself: Robert Mitchum|Robert Ward|July 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the 20th century, we learned that we could crawl inside of a photograph and find ourselves.
New Getty Retrospective On Minor White’s Metamorphosing Camera|Sarah Bay Williams|July 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Rome may crawl and whimper at your feet—I, Cornelia, scorn you!
Quintus Claudius, Volume 2 of 2|Ernst Eckstein
Say to my cousin that I must have Aunt Eliza, if she has to crawl here on her hands and knees.
The Quickening|Francis Lynde
They had been left wounded and had been unable to crawl away from the blazing grass.
A Yeoman's Letters|P. T. Ross
When the poor fellow tried to crawl out of the log, he was unable to do so!
Chatterbox, 1906|Various
I think that hole is about big enough for them to crawl out.
Grapes of wrath|Boyd Cable
British Dictionary definitions for crawl (1 of 2)
crawl1
/ (krɔːl) /
verb(intr)
to move slowly, either by dragging the body along the ground or on the hands and knees
to proceed or move along very slowly or laboriouslythe traffic crawled along the road
to act or behave in a servile manner; fawn; cringe
to be or feel as if overrun by something unpleasant, esp crawling creaturesthe pile of refuse crawled with insects
(of insects, worms, snakes, etc) to move with the body close to the ground
to swim the crawl
noun
a slow creeping pace or motion
Also called: Australian crawl, front crawlswimminga stroke in which the feet are kicked like paddles while the arms reach forward and pull back through the water
Derived forms of crawl
crawlingly, adverb
Word Origin for crawl
C14: probably from Old Norse krafla to creep; compare Swedish kravla, Middle Low German krabbelen to crawl, Old Norse krabbicrab1
British Dictionary definitions for crawl (2 of 2)
crawl2
/ (krɔːl) /
noun
an enclosure in shallow, coastal water for fish, lobsters, etc