I. crawl 1 /krɔːl $ krɒːl/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old Norse ; Origin: krafla ]
1 . to move along on your hands and knees with your body close to the ground
crawl along/across etc
The baby crawled across the floor.
2 . if an insect crawls, it moves using its legs
crawl over/up etc
There’s a bug crawling up your leg.
3 . crawl into/out of bed to get into or out of bed slowly because you are very tired:
We crawled into bed at 2 am.
4 . if a vehicle crawls, it moves forward very slowly
crawl by/along etc
The traffic was crawling along.
5 . British English informal to be too pleasant or helpful to someone in authority, especially because you want them to help you – used in order to show disapproval
crawl to
She’s always crawling to the boss.
6 . be crawling with something to be completely covered with insects, people etc:
The floor was crawling with ants.
The whole place was crawling with cops.
7 . crawl the Net/web if a computer program crawls the Net, it quickly searches the Internet to find the particular information you need ⇨ spider :
robots that crawl the net searching out e-mail addresses for junk mailing
II. crawl 2 BrE AmE noun [singular]
1 . a very slow speed:
The traffic had slowed to a crawl.
2 . the crawl a way of swimming in which you lie on your stomach and move one arm, and then the other, over your head ⇨ backstroke , breaststroke , butterfly