Crawl , n. [Cf. Kraal.]
A pen or inclosure of stakes and hurdles on the seacoast, for holding fish.
Crawl (kr&add;l),
n. The act or motion
of crawling; slow motion, as of
a creeping animal.
Crawl (kr&add;l),
v. i. [imp. & p. p. Crawled (kr&add;ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Crawling.]
[Dan. kravle, or Icel.
krafla, to paw, scrabble with the hands; akin to Sw. kräla to crawl; cf. LG. krabbeln,
D. krabbelen to scratch.] 1. To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and knees; to creep.
A worm finds what it searches after only by feeling, as it crawls from one thing to
another.
Grew.
2. Hence, to move or advance in a
feeble, slow, or timorous manner.
He was hardly
able to crawl about the room.
Arbuthnot.
The
meanest thing that crawl'd beneath my eyes.
Byron.
3.
To advance slowly and furtively; to insinuate one's self; to advance or gain influence by servile or
obsequious conduct.
Secretly crawling up the battered walls.
Knolles.
Hath crawled into the favor of the
king.
Shak.
Absurd opinions crawl about the world.
South.
4.
To have a
sensation as of insect creeping over the body; as,
the flesh crawls. See Creep, v. i., 7.
Hear it pronounced