1. (

• crawl ,

) a very slow movement; "the traffic advanced at a crawl" ;

2. (

• crawl ,
• front_crawl ,
• Australian_crawl

) a swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick ;

3. (

• crawl ,
• crawling ,
• creep ,
• creeping

) a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body; "a crawl was all that the injured man could manage"; "the traffic moved at a creep" ;

1. (

• crawl ,
• creep

) move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground; "The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed" ;

2. (

• crawl ,

) feel as if crawling with insects; "My skin crawled;

3. (

• crawl

) be full of; "The old cheese was crawling with maggots" ;

4. (

• fawn ,
• crawl ,
• creep ,
• cringe ,
• cower ,
• grovel

) show submission or fear ;

5. (

• crawl ,

) swim by doing the crawl; "European children learn the breast stroke; they often don't know how to crawl" ;