Definitions and meaning of crab
crab
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /kɹæb/, enPR: krăb
-
- Rhymes: -æb
Etymology 1
From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“scratch, claw at”), a metathesised o-grade of *gerbʰ-. More at carve.
Noun
crab (countable and uncountable, plural crabs)
- A crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
- (uncountable) The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
- A bad-tempered person.
- (in plural crabs, informal) An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).
- (uncountable, aviation) The angle by which an aircraft's nose is pointed upwind of its groundtrack to compensate for crosswinds during an approach to landing; its crab angle.
- (poker slang) A playing card with the rank of three.
- (rowing) 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.
- (dated) An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)
- (intransitive) To fish for crabs.
- (transitive, US, slang) To ruin.
- (intransitive) To complain.
- (transitive) To complain about.
- (intransitive) 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.
- (transitive, aviation) To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
- (transitive, film, television) To move (a camera) sideways.
- (obsolete, World War I), 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.
- (rare) To back out of something.
Derived terms
Etymology 2
From Middle English crabbe (“wild apple”), of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic, cognate with Swedish dialect scrabba.
Noun
crab (plural crabs)
- The crab apple or wild apple.
- The 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.
Synonyms
- (crab apple): crab apple
- (tree): crab apple
Derived terms
Verb
crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)
- (obsolete) To irritate, make surly or sour
- To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
- (British dialect) To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick
Derived terms
Etymology 3
Possibly a corruption of the genus name Carapa
Noun
crab (plural crabs)
- The tree species Carapa guianensis, native to South America.
Derived terms
Etymology 4
From carabiner.
Noun
crab (plural crabs)
- (informal) Short for carabiner.
Further reading
- “crab”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- crab on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN
- Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the English Language. International Edition. combined with Britannica World Language Dictionary. Chicago-London etc., Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., 1965.
Anagrams
- BRAC, RBAC, carb, carb-, cbar
Middle English
Etymology 1
Inherited from Old English crabba.
Noun
crab
- Alternative form of crabbe (“crab”)
Etymology 2
Of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic.
Noun
crab
- Alternative form of crabbe (“crabapple”)
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French crabe.
Noun
crab m (plural crabi)
- crab
Declension
See also
Source: wiktionary.org