crawled; crawling; crawls
1
a
: to move on one's hands and knees
The baby crawled toward her mother.
b
: to move slowly in a prone position without or as if without the use of limbs
The snake crawled into its hole.
The soldiers crawled forward on their bellies.
2
: to move or progress slowly or laboriously
traffic crawling along at 10 miles an hour
3
: to advance by guile or servility
crawling into favor by toadying to his boss
4
: to spread by extending stems or tendrils
a crawling vine
5
a
: to be alive or swarming with or as if with creeping things
a kitchen crawling with ants
b
: to have the sensation of insects creeping over one
The story made her flesh crawl.
6
: to fail to stay evenly spread
—used of paint, varnish, or glaze
1
: to move upon in or as if in a creeping manner
all the creatures that crawl the earth
2
: to reprove harshly
… they got no good right to crawl me for what I wrote …—
Marjorie K. Rawlings
Marjorie K. Rawlings3
of a search engine
: to visit and index (websites) for future database queries
This would apparently be a bit like online publishers … [telling] search engines such as Google not to crawl their sites.—David Meyer
David Meyer
plural crawls
1
a
: the act or action of crawling
A child's early developmental stages, be it their first crawl or their first step, is something parents eagerly anticipate and cherish.—Malvika Hemanth
Malvika Hemanth
b
: slow or laborious progress
Traffic slowed to a crawl.
It [Hurricane Ian] swamped city streets with water and smashed trees along the coast while moving at a crawl that threatened catastrophic flooding across a wide area.—Mark Heim
Mark Heim
d
: a themed event that involves visiting multiple establishments of a similar kind in succession
A shuttle will run throughout the day to take visitors to the various locations on the art crawl and visit the 15 vendors who've created works for the shopping event.—Sarah Colburn
Sarah ColburnIn New Jersey, there's no shortage of experiential tourism for foodies, from food crawls in Jersey City to … farms in Hunterdon County …—Kimberly Redmond
Kimberly RedmondA lit crawl is like a pub crawl, except (perhaps) you won't have a headache the next day. You will, however, wake up to find your head stuffed with glorious words and (perhaps) to see a new stack of books on your bedside table.—Laurie Hertzel
Laurie Hertzel2
or crawl stroke plural crawl strokes
: a fast swimming stroke executed in a prone position with alternating overarm strokes and a flutter kick
She did the crawl with her head above the water …—Cathrin Bradbury
Cathrin Bradbury… slicing through the water with a powerful crawl stroke …—Elizabeth Shepherd
Elizabeth Shepherdcalled also freestyle
3
: lettering that moves vertically or horizontally across an electronic display (as of a television or computer monitor) or movie screen to give information (such as performer credits or news bulletins)
… the opening crawl, the sprawling wall of slowly scrolling text that crept up from the bottom of the screen …—Dan Casey
Dan CaseyThe message was displayed as a news crawl on … computers, and text messages were sent to visitors.—Molly Walsh
Molly WalshSynonyms
Examples of crawl in a Sentence
Verb
Does the baby crawl yet?
We got down on our knees and crawled through a small opening.
The baby crawled across the floor toward her mother.
The soldiers crawled forward on their bellies.
The snake crawled into its hole.
They're doing construction on the road, so traffic is crawling.
I worked late into the night, and it was 2 a.m. before I finally crawled into bed.
The bus crawled along the rough and narrow road.
The days slowly crawled by.
Work on the project has crawled to a standstill.
Noun
Near the construction site, traffic had slowed to a crawl.
The bus was moving along at a crawl.
Her strongest stroke is the crawl.
Recent Examples on the Web
Laura Bradley, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2025
The investigators will lay out a grid at the scene, typically with string, and literally crawl around on their hands and knees in search of footprints or other clues.
—Adiel Kaplan, NBC News, 15 Jan. 2025
Julie K. Brown, Miami Herald, 23 Jan. 2025
The film and television industries had slowed to a crawl, the country had just gone into its third lockdown, and the theaters were closed, which must have smarted for Crane, who’d just been cast as Harry Potter in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for crawl 
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Verb
Emma Corrin — who plays Anna Harding, best friend to Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter — had to film a scene covered in rats that crawled on their bare chest.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2025
The investigators will lay out a grid at the scene, typically with string, and literally crawl around on their hands and knees in search of footprints or other clues.
—Adiel Kaplan, NBC News, 15 Jan. 2025
Noun
Records show, in recent years, officers forced one inmate to quack like a duck, and another to do bear crawls from the chow hall to her dorm.
—Julie K. Brown, Miami Herald, 23 Jan. 2025
The film and television industries had slowed to a crawl, the country had just gone into its third lockdown, and the theaters were closed, which must have smarted for Crane, who’d just been cast as Harry Potter in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for crawl
Dictionary Entries Near crawl
Cite this Entry
“Crawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crawl. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
crawl
1 of 2 verb1
: to move slowly with the body close to the ground : move on hands and knees
2
: to move along slowly
the bus crawled along
3
: to be covered with or have the feeling of being covered with creeping things
the floor was crawling with ants
crawler
noun
crawl
2 of 2 noun1
: the act or motion of crawling
2
: a swimming stroke performed facedown in the water and using overarm strokes and rapid alternating kicks
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