Crab Definition

krăb
crabbed, crabbing, crabs
noun
crabs
Any of various decapods with four pairs of legs, one pair of pincers, a flattish shell, and a short, broad abdomen folded under its thorax.
Webster's New World
Any of other similar arthropods, as the horseshoe crab.
Webster's New World
Crabmeat.
American Heritage Medicine
The edible part of a crab.
Webster's New World
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
verb
crabbed, crabbing, crabs
To fish for crabs; catch crabs.
Webster's New World
To irritate; vex.
Webster's New World
To complain peevishly; grumble.
Webster's New World
To scurry sideways in the manner of a crab.
American Heritage
To sour; embitter.
Webster's New World
adjective
Of a crab apple or the tree that it grows on.
Webster's New World
idiom
catch a crab
  • To make a faulty stroke in rowing that causes the blade of the oar to strike the water on the recovery stroke.
American Heritage
catch a crab
  • to fail to clear the water on the recovery stroke accidentally, thereby unbalancing the boat or impeding its movement
Webster's New World
the Crab
  • Cancer, the constellation and fourth sign of the zodiac
Webster's New World
crab one's act (the deal, <i>etc.</i>)
  • to ruin or frustrate one's scheme (the deal, etc.)
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Crab

Noun

Singular:
crab
Plural:
crabs

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Crab

Origin of Crab

  • From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô (compare Dutch krab, Low German Krabb, Swedish krabba), from *krabbōną 'to creep, crawl' (compare East Frisian kraabje, Dutch krabben, Bavarian German krepsen), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰ- (“scratch, claw at”), a variant of *gerebʰ-. More at carve.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English crabbe, of Germanic origin, plausibly from Scandinavian, cognate with Swedish dialect scrabba

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English crabbe possibly from crabbe crab (shellfish) crab1

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Middle English crabbe from Old English crabba gerbh- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Possibly a corruption of the genus name Carapa

    From Wiktionary

  • Alternation of carabiner

    From Wiktionary

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