crew
UK /kɹuː/ · US /kɹu/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of crow
Forms crews crewing crewed
- noun (obsolete) Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.
- noun A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft. “If you need help, please contact a member of the crew.”
- noun A group of people working together on a task. “The crews competed to cut the most timber.”
- noun (art) The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast. “There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!”
- noun (informal, often derogatory) A close group of friends. “I’d look out for that whole crew down at Jack’s.”
- noun (often derogatory) A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.
- noun (scouting) A group of Rovers.
- noun (slang, hip-hop) A hip-hop or b-boying group.
- verb (transitive and intransitive) To be a member of a vessel's crew. “We crewed together on a fishing boat last year.”
- verb (transitive) To be a member of a work or production crew. “The film was crewed and directed by students.”
- verb (transitive) To supply workers or sailors for a crew.
- verb (nautical) To do the proper work of a sailor. “The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.”
- verb (nautical) To take on, recruit (new) crew.
- noun (UK, dialectal chiefly Scotland, Northern England, East Midlands) A pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs
- noun (dialectal, dated) The Manx shearwater.
- proper noun A habitational surname from Welsh.
- proper noun A male given name transferred from the surname.
- proper noun A townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
- proper noun A townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Synonyms
team gang crowd flock lot posse band group crewer ship's company all hands complement staff stagehands clique pack bunch member crewmember nautical only: sailor work party
Etymology
From Middle English crue, from Old French creue (“an increase, recruit, military reinforcement”), the feminine past participle of creistre (“grow”), from Latin crescere (“to arise, grow”).
Probably of Brythonic/Cumbric origin. Compare Middle Welsh creu (“pigsty, hovel, stockade”).
From Crewe in Cheshire, Old Welsh criu (“weir”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The Manx shearwater.
- noun A company of people associated together; an assemblage; a throng.
- noun The company of seamen who man a ship, vessel, or at; the company belonging to a vessel or a boat.
Etymology [From older accrue accession, reAccrue, Crescent.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “crew”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details