Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Crawling |
CrawlingAdjective1. Moving or progressing very slowly or laboriously especially by or as if by dragging the body along close to the ground; "a riverbank full of crawling crocodiles"; "a creeping tractor". 2. Used of traffic; "bumper-to-bumper traffic". Noun1. A slow creeping mode of locomotion (on hands and knees or dragging the body); "a crawl was all that the injured man could manage"; "the traffic moved at a creep". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "crawling" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1120. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Chemical Industry | Defect in which a wet point or varnish film receeds from small areas of the surface, leaving them apparently uncoated. Source: European Union. (references) |
Electrical Engineering | The stable but abnormal running of a synchronous or asynchronous machine at a speed near to a submultiple of the synchronous speed. Source: European Union. (references) |
Publishing & Graphic Arts | The contraction of an ink film into drops after printing on a surface which the ink does not wet completely. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Crawling is a form of moving around by some animals and in some cases by humans.For humans it usually means moving on knees and hands, with support from the toes. Without vehicle and without being carried by an animal it is the main alternative for walking and running, mainly when the person is not capable of walking because of being an infant or due to a disability or being wounded or sick. It is also applied in very low places (a cave, under a table, etc.), when searching for something on the ground, and for fun, including playing a submissive role in BDSM.
Figuratively, crawling means moving slowly.
Crawling is also a song by the nu-metal/rap metal band Linkin Park.
See also web crawler.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Crawling."
Synonyms: CrawlingSynonyms: bumper-to-bumper (adj), crawl (n), creep (n), creeping (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Crawling |
| English words defined with "crawling": alive with ♦ bug ♦ crawl, crawling with, creep, creeping, creepy ♦ formication, furtively ♦ gurnard ♦ isopod ♦ on the sly, Oscillaria, overflowing with, overrun with ♦ Reptant ♦ swarming with ♦ teeming with. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "crawling": Bedbugs ♦ cat run, Clover, Crawl, crawling horror, crawlway ♦ Lawns ♦ Snail, Spider ♦ Ticks ♦ Vermin. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "crawling": Vermination. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | From the crawling ant to the leaping antelope (The Lion King; writing credit: Irene Mecchi; Jonathan Roberts) Nobody wants to see what's crawling under the rock of the American Dream (Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge; writing credit: Bernie Lefkowitz; Paul Brown) Three hours of crawling in the sewers for electric leeches and what do we get (Extreme Ghostbusters; writing credit: Brooks Wachtel) Captain Hastings, he wonders why I have a hatred for these crawling, buzzing things (Poirot; writing credit: Clive Exton; Anthony Horowitz) Weeping, crawling, blaming everybody else (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Lyrics | Ooh you had me crawling up the wall (Things We Do For Love; performing artist: 10 CC) Time keeps on crawling (If My Heart Had Wings; performing artist: Faith Hill) I'm crawling on the ground (It's About Time; performing artist: LILLIX) Crawling on the floor, I'm feeling sick, (Code Red; performing artist: Prince) I'm just like a turtle crawling out of my shell (Mr. Boombastic; performing artist: Shaggy) | |
Clever | Magnet: Something you find crawling all over a dead cat. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Crawling Hand (1963) | |
Song Titles | Crawling (performing artist: Linkin Park) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Pictured is one white nude mouse. The mouse is crawling around on a lab table, which is covered with a white padding. Nude mice, because of a genetic defect, have no thymus and cannot make certain cells essential for various immune responses. Because of this, they are extremely helpful to scientists working in Immunology Research. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |  | The second in a series of images that show the specialized "spyder" at work at the Glade Bekken restoration site. The spyder was used at the restoration site to prevent and minimize disturbance to the habitat. The machine crawls and walks over the surface as opposed to rolling over and flattening sensitive habitats. This image shows the spyder crawling. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Florida state libraries crawling toward the '67 Florida state legislature. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Hamilton, Montana. Son of Ted Barkhoefer, crawling on the kitchen floor. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Crawling" by Kevin Rohr Commentary: "Ladybug on the run." | "Spider on the Wall" by Ben Karam Commentary: "This is a macro photo of a spider crawling up a brick wall." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | It was crawling along the pavement |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Now they were in the yard proper, earth beaten hard, shiny hard, and a few dusty crawling weeds on the ground |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | But the most hateful sight of all was the lice crawling on their clothes |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Other early symptoms may include problems crawling or walking and diminished eye contact. (references) | |
Wear light-colored clothing -- this will allow you to see ticks that are crawling on your clothing. (references) | ||
If crawling bugs are found 7-10 days after treatment, retreat with the same or different louse medication. (references) | ||
Economic History | Brazil | E-Commerce & E-Business: The "Business to Business" (B2B) segment is still crawling in Brazil and is concentrated in a few large companies. (references) |
Hungary | In 2000, the official average exchange rate for the HUF to the USD was 282.27. The Central Bank manages a crawling peg foreign exchange regime, linked to the Euro. (references) | |
Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka's exchange rate management system underwent a major change in early 2001. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka floated the rupee on January 23 abandoning the earlier crawling band exchange rate system. (references) | |
Human Rights | Cote d'Ivoire | They frequently forced detainees to perform degrading and humiliating tasks, such as crawling, eating dirt, doing push-ups while under threat of physical harm, drinking urine or blood, and eating excrement. (references) |
Political Economy | ECUADOR | Up until February of 1999, the Central Bank maintained a crawling peg exchange rate system. (references) |
POLAND | On April 12, 2000, the NBP abandoned the crawling peg it had used since 1991 and allowed the zloty to float freely. (references) | |
Trade | Croatia | Croatia's currency, the kuna (HRK), floats freely, but the Croatian National Bank intervenes in the market from time-to-time to ensure stability of the currency, effectively ensuring the crawling peg (to the Euro) performance, disrupted by the seasonal impacts of tourism revenues. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Crawling" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 86.71% of the time. "Crawling" is used about 331 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 86.71% | 287 | 17,188 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 12.99% | 43 | 52,181 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.3% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 331 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "crawling": be crawling ♦ crawling horror ♦ crawling over ♦ crawling with ♦ crawling withpredicate overrun with swarming swarming withpredicate teeming teeming withpredicate ♦ flat crawling. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "crawling": kerb-crawling. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "crawling"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | zvarritje (crawl, creep, creeping, dragging, lugging, procrastination, scuff, spreading, trailing). (various references) | |
Arabic | زحف (crawl, crawl on all fours, creep, creeping, draggle, grovel, march, scramble, trail). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | лазейки. (various references) | |
Chinese | 爬行 (Crawl, Crawled, Creeping, creeps, Crept, scramble, scrambled). (various references) | |
Czech | pochlebnický (honeyed, honied). (various references) | |
Danish | perling (crystallization, mottle, mottling), krybning (cissing, cold flow, creep, creep erosion, creeping, flow), danne øer, øer. (various references) | |
Dutch | parelen, optrekken (accelerate, pick up, separate), opkrimpen, kruipen (crawl, creep), kralen (cissing). (various references) | |
Finnish | ryömintä (drift), matelu (cringing), helmeily, aukeilu (cissing, shrinkage), aukeaminen (cissing, shrinkage). (various references) | |
French | contraction (crowding out), retirement, rampement, rampant (creeper, creeping), rampage (creeping). (various references) | |
German | kriechend (creeping, cringing, groveling, slow moving, truckling, worming), kraulend, krabbelnd (scrabbling). (various references) | |
Greek | σύρσιμο (crawl), μάζεμα (furl, pickup), ερπυσμός (cissing, creep, creeping, flow, pushing). (various references) | |
Hebrew | בזחילה, רמישה (creeping). (various references) | |
Hungarian | csúszó (creepy, slide, sliding, slipping). (various references) | |
Italian | rotazione lenta subsincrona, distacco (aloofness, detachment, lead, parting, separation, severance). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 蛇行 (meandering). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ほふく (creeping, sneaking), はいはい (creeping), だこう (meandering). (various references) | |
Korean | 포복 (Creep). (various references) | |
Manx | snaue (bathing, course, crawl, creep, creep as child, creeping, float, floating, flotation, glide, gliding, in suspension, scuttle; track of snail; swimming, scuttle; track; swimming, sidle, slither, slithering, swim), er croo (alive with vermin, full, swarming). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | awlingcray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | olhos de perdiz (cissing), arrasto (drag, dragging). (various references) | |
Romanian | târâtor (creeping, creepy, cringing, decumbent, grovelling, prostrate, reptile). (various references) | |
Russian | ползком (on all fours). (various references) | |
Scottish | snàgach (sneaking). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | puzeći. (various references) | |
Spanish | despegado del barniz, arrastre (pull). (various references) | |
Swedish | ålning. (various references) | |
Turkish | emekleme (creep). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | повзання (crawl), переповзання. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "crawling": becrawling, outcrawling, scrawling. (additional references) | |
| |
"Crawling" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ceawlin, Crailing, crawlling, Crowlin, srawling. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "crawling" (pronounced krô"ling) |
| 5 | -r ô" l i ng | brawling, sprawling. |
| 4 | -ô" l i ng | appalling, balling, calling, galling, hauling, installing, mothballing, recalling, stalling, walling. |
| 3 | -l i ng | annealing, appealing, ailing, ambling, angling, assailing, assembling, babbling, backpedaling, baffling, bailing, baling, bankrolling, barreling, battling, beguiling, belittling, Belling, bicycling, billing, blackmailing, boggling, boiling, Bolling, bottling, bowling, bristling, broiling, bubbling, buckling, bugling, bumbling, bundling, bungling, burgling, burling, bustling, cackling, cajoling, canceling, cancelling, Carling, ceiling, channeling, chilling, chortling, chronicling, chuckling, circling, coddling, commingling, compelling, compiling, concealing, consoling, controlling, cooling, corralling, counseling, countervailing, coupling, cowling, crackling, cradling, crippling, crumbling, cuddling, culling, curling, curtailing, cycling, dabbling, dangling, darling, dawdling, dazzling, dealing, decoupling, derailing, detailing, Dialing, disabling, disgruntling, dismantling, dispelling, dissembling, distilling, doling, doubling, dribbling, drilling, drizzling, drooling, duckling, dueling, dulling, dumpling, dwelling, dwindling, earthling, emailing, embezzling, empaneling, enabling, encircling, enrolling, entailing, entangling, entitling, equaling, excelling, expelling, extolling, failing, falling, feeling, felling, fiddling, filing, filling, fizzling, flailing, fledgling, foaling, foiling, fondling, fooling, forestalling, foretelling, fouling, foundling, freewheeling, fueling, fuelling, fulfilling, fumbling, funneling, gambling, giggling, gobbling, grappling, Grayling, grilling, groundling, groveling, growling, grueling, grumbling, gurgling, guzzling, haggling, hailing, handling, hassling, healing, heckling, helling, hilling, hobbling, holing, howling, huddling, humbling, hurdling, hurling, hurtling, hustling, idling, imperiling, inhaling, initialing, inkling, instilling, intermingling, jailing, jiggling, jostling, juggling, Keeling, killing, kindling, kneeling, labeling, leveling, lolling, Lulling, mailing, mangling, Marling, marshaling, meddling, Melling, middling, milling, mingling, mishandling, mislabeling, misspelling, modeling, mottling, muddling, mulling, mumbling, muscling, nailing, needling, nestling, nibbling, nonruling, oiling, outselling, overbilling, overhauling, overkilling, overruling, overselling, paddling, paneling, panhandling, paralleling, parboiling, parceling, paroling, patrolling, pearling, pedaling, peddling, peeling, pickling, piddling, piling, Pilling, Pindling, poling, polling, pooling, prevailing, profiling, propelling, prowling, pulling, pummeling, puzzling, quadrupling, quarreling, quelling, quibbling, quilling, Quisling, railing, rambling, rankling, rappelling, rattling, raveling, rebelling, reconciling, recycling, redoubling, reeling, refueling, regaling, rekindling, remodeling, repealing, repelling, rescheduling, reselling, resembling, reshuffling, retailing, retelling, retooling, revealing, reveling, ridiculing, Riesling, rifling, rilling, rippling, rivaling, roiling, rolling, rototilling, ruffling, ruling, rumbling, rustling, saddling, sailing, sampling, Sandling, sapling, scaling, scheduling, Schilling, schooling, scowling, scrambling, scribbling, scuttling, sealing, seedling, Seeling, selling, settling, shelling, shilling, shoveling, shriveling, shuffling, shuttling, sibling, signaling, signalling, singling, sizzling, skilling, smelling, smiling, smuggling, snarling, Snelling, snowballing, sparkling, Sparling, spelling, spilling, spiraling, spiralling, spoiling, sprinkling, squabbling, squealing, stapling, starling, startling, stealing, stenciling, sterling, stifling, stockpiling, stonewalling, storytelling, straddling, strangling, strickling, stripling, strolling, struggling, stumbling, styling, suckling, surveilling, swashbuckling, swelling, swilling, swindling, swirling, swiveling, tabling, tackling, tailing, tangling, telling, thrilling, throttling, Tilling, tingling, tinkling, toddling, toggling, toiling, tolling, tooling, toppling, totaling, totalling, toweling, trailing, trampling, traveling, travelling, trembling, trickling, trifling, trilling, tripling, trolling, troubling, tumbling, tunneling, twiddling, twinkling, twirling, unappealing, unavailing, unbundling, underling, underselling, unfailing, unfeeling, unfurling, unraveling, unsettling, unsmiling, untangling, unveiling, unwilling, veiling, waffling, waggling, wailing, warbling, weakling, welling, whaling, wheeling, whirling, whistling, whittling, wholesaling, wiggling, wiling, willing, wobbling, wrangling, wrestling, wrinkling, yearling, yelling, yodeling. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-g-i-l-n-r-w" | |
-1 letter: carling, clawing. | |
-2 letters: arcing, caring, carlin, cawing, garlic, lacing, lawing, racing, waling, waring. | |
-3 letters: acing, algin, align, argil, awing, cairn, cigar, clang, cling, crawl, garni, glair, gnarl, grail, grain, liang, ligan, linac, linga, naric, rawin, wigan, wrang, wring. | |
-4 letters: agin, airn, anil, aril, cain, carl, carn, clag, clan, claw, crag, craw, gain, girl, girn. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-g-i-l-n-r-w" | |
+1 letter: clearwing, scrawling. | |
+2 letters: becrawling, clearwings. | |
+3 letters: lowercasing, outcrawling, racewalking. | |
+4 letters: cartwheeling, caterwauling, flowcharting, racewalkings. | |
+5 letters: flowchartings. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
