verb / noun
crawl
KRAWL/krɔːl/
To move slowly and close to the ground.
The older woman crawls slowly across the exercise mat on her hands and knees.
Etymology
Middle English creulen described drawing the body slowly across the ground. The suggested Old Norse connection, meaning “to claw one's way,” offers a pulling-motion image, but that particular ancestry is uncertain.
In context
they crawl along the ground to get at the cantens of their dead companions in hopes to find remaining in them some drops to drink
More examples
- We crawl under the fence on our hands and knees.
- Traffic slows to a crawl near the construction site.
- Our friends join a bar crawl through the neighborhood.
Forms
crawl · crawls · crawled · crawling
crawler noun — A person or animal that crawls.