crab
/kɹæb/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms crabs crabbing crabbed the Crab
- noun Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
- noun (uncountable) The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
- noun Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters. “Despite its name, the hermit crab is not a true crab!”
- noun A horseshoe crab.
- noun A bad-tempered person.
- noun (in plural crabs, informal) An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis). “Although crabs themselves are an easily treated inconvenience, the patient and his partner(s) clearly run major STD risks.”
- noun (poker slang) A playing card with the rank of three.
- noun (rowing) A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
- verb (intransitive) To fish for crabs.
- verb (transitive, US, slang) To ruin.
- verb (intransitive) To complain.
- verb (transitive) To complain about.
- verb (intransitive) To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).
- verb To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces.
- verb (transitive, film, television) To move (a camera) sideways.
- verb (transitive, aviation) To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
- noun A crab apple or wild apple.
- noun A tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
- noun A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
- noun A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
Synonyms
crab apple crabby person Cancer Cancer the Crab crabmeat crab louse pubic louse Phthirius pubis gripe bitch grouse beef squawk bellyache holler
Etymology
From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“to scratch”), a metathesised o-grade of *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). More at carve.
See also Dutch krab, Low German Krabb, Danish krabbe, Swedish krabba.
Further cognates with frequentative-infix are Saterland Frisian krabbelje (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch krabbelen (“to scratch”) and German krabbeln (“to crawl”). Possibly related to English creep and Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”) etc.
Other origins have also been suggested, see Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos) (regarding the possibility of a substrate origin) and Persian خرچنگ (regarding possible ideophonic origin); compare also Old Armenian քարբ (kʻarb), German Krebs.
From Middle English crabbe (“wild apple”), of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic, cognate with Swedish dialect skrabba (“sour apple, apple cart”).
Possibly a corruption of the genus name Carapa
From carabiner.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of the brachyuran Crustacea. They are mostly marine, and usually have a broad, short body, covered with a strong shell or carapace. The abdomen is small and curled up beneath the body.
- noun The zodiacal constellation Cancer.
- verb To make sour or morose; to embitter. [Obs.]
- verb To beat with a crabstick. [Obs.] J. Fletcher.
Etymology [AS. crabba; akin to D. krab, G. krabbe, krebs, Icel. krabbi, Sw. krabba, Dan. krabbe, and perh. to E. cramp. Cf. Crawfish.]
Etymology [Prob. from the same root as crab, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “crab”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details