crab
Meanings
- Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
- The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
- Various other animals that resemble true crabs:
- Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.
- A horseshoe crab.
- A bad-tempered person.
- An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).
- Ellipsis of crab angle.
- A playing card with the rank of three.
- A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
- A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
- An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.
- To fish for crabs.
- To ruin.
- To complain.
- To complain about.
- To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).
- To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces.
- To move (a camera) sideways.
- To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
- To fly slightly off the straight-line course towards an enemy aircraft, as the machine guns on early aircraft did not allow firing through the propeller disk.
- To back out of something.
- To make a loud, rapid rattling sound when scared, stressed, or agitated.
- A crab apple or wild apple.
- A tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
- A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
- A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
- A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.
- A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.
- A claw for anchoring a portable machine.
- To irritate, make surly or sour
- To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
- To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick
- To offend or insult.
- The tree species Carapa guianensis, native to South America.
- Clipping of carabiner, modified based on likening the shape of a carabiner to a crab's claw.
- A unit for measuring the intensity of astrophysical X-ray sources, defined as the intensity of the Crab Nebula at the corresponding X-ray photon energy.
- The constellation and zodiacal sign Cancer.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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. Cognates 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.