crawlverb
uk/krɔːl/us/krɑːl/crawl verb (MOVE)
B2 [ I ] to move slowly or with difficulty, especially with your body stretched out along the ground or on hands and knees:
More examples
- With a wriggle, she managed to crawl through the gap.
- The children crawled through an opening space in the fence.
- The baby was crawling around on its hands and knees.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Moving on your hands and legs or on your stomach
- clamber
- claw
- claw your way (somewhere) idiom
- four
- grovel
- on all fours idiom
- pull
- scramble
- slither
- wriggle
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
crawl verb (TRY TO PLEASE)
[ I ] UK informal disapproving to try hard to please in order to get an advantage:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Praising insincerely or too eagerly
- arse-licker
- bow and scrape idiom
- brown-nose
- crawler
- creep
- fawn
- flattery
- flattery will get you nowhere idiom
- glad-handing
- grovel
- idealize
- left-handed compliment
- massage
- massage sb's ego idiom
- obsequious
- play up to sb
- schmooze
- slobber
- toady
- unctuous
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crawl verb (FILL)
to be completely covered with or full of a particular type of thing:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Full
- alive
- alive with sth idiom
- awash
- be a rich seam to mine idiom
- be riddled with sth idiom
- bristle
- burst
- congested
- cramped
- crowded
- heaping
- heaving
- heavy with sth idiom
- ridden
- riddled
- rife
- sardine
- saturate
- saturation point
- seam
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Idiom(s)
crawlnoun
uk/krɔːl/us/krɑːl/crawl noun (SWIMMING)
C1 [ S or U ] a style of swimming in which you move your arms over your head and kick with straight legs
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Swimming
- aquatics
- armband
- backstroke
- bellyflop
- butterfly
- depth
- diving board
- dog paddle
- dove
- frogman
- gala
- pearl diver
- scissor kick
- scuba diving
- shaken
- snorkel
- stroke
- swallow dive
- swan dive
- swimming baths
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crawl noun (MOVEMENT)
C1 [ S ] a very slow speed:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Slow and moving slowly
- at a snail's pace idiom
- by and by idiom
- by degrees idiom
- claw your way (somewhere) idiom
- clunky
- drift
- float
- hang around
- in ones and twos idiom
- inch by inch idiom
- infiltrate
- infiltration
- labour
- mill
- slowpoke
- sluggish
- snail
- steadily
- steady
- struggle
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