Word.ws English Dictionary

crab

UK/kɹæb/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈkɹab/

crab noun: any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace. Also the ellipsis of crab angle.

crab: any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in...
Image: Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

crab (countable and uncountable, plural crabs)

  1. Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
  2. (uncountable) The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
    • But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw[…]that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax
  3. Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.
    • Despite its name, the hermit crab is not a true crab!
  4. A horseshoe crab.
  5. A bad-tempered person.
    • She so obviously enjoyed every second of the concert that only the most stubborn crab could not have been warmed by her charm.1983 April 30, Sue Hyde, “Expanding Worldviews”, in Gay Community News, page 12
  6. (informal, in plural crabs) An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).
    • Although crabs themselves are an easily treated inconvenience, the patient and his partner(s) clearly run major STD risks.
  7. (slang) A playing card with the rank of three.
  8. A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
  9. A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
    • -- "I suppose you wouldn't like to do a locum for a month on the South coast? Three guineas a week with board and lodging." -- "I wouldn't mind," said Philip. -- "It's at Farnley, in Dorsetshire. Doctor South. You'd have to go down at once; his assistant has developed mumps. I believe it's a very...1915, W.S. Maugham, “chapter 116”, in Of Human Bondage
    • Arrested by the low price of another “desirable residence”, I asked “What's the crab?” The agent assured me that there was no crab. I fell in love with this house at sight. Happily, I discovered that it was reputed to be haunted.1940, Horace Annesley Vachell, Little Tyrannies
  10. (dated) An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.
    • […] the unsold copies may be returned to the original publisher , at a period fixed upon between Christmas and Easter; these returned copies are technically called krebse or crabs, probably, from their walking backwards. […] A says to B, "I have had eight thousand dollars' worth of your...1844, Albert Henry Payne, Payne's universum, or pictorial world, page 99
    • […] unsold copies and settling the yearly accounts; while for the publisher begins the much dreaded season of "crabs," as […]1892, The Publishers Weekly, volume 41, page 709
  11. (Singapore, slang) On an insignia, a coat of arms symbol representing a senior rank.
  12. (derogatory, Blood slang) A member of the Crips.
  13. (informal) A pubic louse.
    • Pthirus pubis
      PUBIC LOUSE, aka CRABS2023, translated in 2025, Berta Páramo and translated by Marc Correa Haro, Lice: How to Survive on Humans, page 48

Verb (1)

crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)

  1. (intransitive) To fish for crabs.
  2. (US, slang, transitive) To ruin.
    • I thought at the time that that little speech meant a savin' of eight dollars,[…] But the Missus crabbed it a few minutes after her and Bess come in the room.1916, Ring W. Lardner, “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post
    • ‘Just so we understand each other,’ he said after a pause. ‘If you crab this case, you'll be in a jam.’1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 224
  3. (intransitive) To complain.
    • “The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.”1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 127
    • And if we do have to walk, I don't want to have to listen to you crabbing at me, Tad Trenton.1981, Stephen King, Cujo, published 2001, page 163
  4. (transitive) To complain about.
    • Well, because of this state of things they crabbed his scheme from the first, ridiculed it, wrote against it, spread broadcast a feeling of distrust.2007, Douglas Newton, Dr. Odin, page 24
  5. (intransitive) To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).
    • Mutt stalked forward, matching him, step for step, crabbing sideways the way wolves do when they're going for the kill.2000, Dana Stabenow, Midnight Come Again, →ISBN, page 251
    • The aircraft crabbed sideways in the cross-winds and leveled to horizontal.2007, Pat DePaolo, The Beijing Games, →ISBN, page 454
  6. To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces.
    • Time slowed down then, became liquid in the aftermath of his grotesque, unfolding limbs; he crabbed his way down the faded line, rocking back and forth in braces he would use all his life.2011, Robert Vivian, The Least Cricket of Evening, page 108
    • Foot by foot, he crabbed his way down another ninety feet of rock chimney until he stood on solid ground again, still very much alive.2019, Ronan Frost, White Peak
  7. (transitive) To move (a camera) sideways.
    • If panning is not easy to make seem natural, crabbing the camera is even less like any action we perform with our eyes in the real world. There are a few circumstances in which we walk sideways: […]1997, Paul Kriwaczek, Documentary for the Small Screen, page 109
  8. (transitive) To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
  9. (World-War-I, obsolete) 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.
  10. (rare) To back out of something.
    • “Nothing can possibly go wrong.” “Just as you say, sir. But I still have that feeling.” The blood of the Woosters is hot, and I was about to tell him in set terms what I thought of his bally feeling, when I suddenly spotted what it was that was making him crab the act.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
  11. To make a loud, rapid rattling sound when scared, stressed, or agitated.

Noun (2)

crab (plural crabs)

  1. A crab apple or wild apple.
    • I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
      And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts;1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
    • Just as by cultivation the acrid wild crab has been developed into the beautiful and luscious apple, may the unripe, ill-fed, neglected wild fruits of the fields and slums be developed into pure and noble and beautiful men and women.1895, Robert Blatchford, “The New Party in the North”, in Andrew Reid, editor, The New Party Described by Some of its Members, London: Hodder Brothers, page 24
  2. A tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
  3. A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
    • She swore to such things , that I could do nothing but swear and call names : upon which out bolts her husband upon me , with a fine taper crab in his hand and fell upon me with such violence , that , being half delirious , I made a full confession1741, David Garrick, The Lying Valet
  4. A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
  5. A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.
  6. A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.
  7. A claw for anchoring a portable machine.

Verb (2)

crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)

  1. (obsolete) To irritate, make surly or sour
  2. To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
  3. (British, dialectal) To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick
    • Get you to bed, drab, courage Or l'll so crab your shoulders!1639, John Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas
    • I was on a horse named The Skipper, a perfect terror to ride when he was in a bad humour, which he invariably was; nevertheless he was a splendid hunter and I never crabbed him.1935, Jack Molyneux, John Fairfax-Blakeborough, Thirty Years a Hunt Servant: Being the Memories of Jack Molyneux, page 161
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To offend or insult.
    • If I think one thing and speak another, / I will both crab Christ and our Ladie His mother.

Noun (3)

crab (plural crabs)

  1. The tree species Carapa guianensis, native to South America.

Noun (4) capitalized: Crab

Crab (plural Crabs)

  1. 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.

Proper noun capitalized: Crab

the Crab

  1. The constellation and zodiacal sign Cancer.
    • This Crab, I confeſſe, did ill become the heavens[.]1634, Thomas Carew, Cœlum Britanicum. A masque at White-Hall in the Banquetting-House on Shrove-Tuesday-Night, the 18. of February 1633, London: John Walkley, page 11
    • Cancer, or the Crab, commandeth the Stomach, Limbs, Arteries, Milt, Liver and Gall.1668, ‘Godfridus’, The Knowledge of Things Unknown, London: G.P. for G. Sawbridge, page 19

Also used as

crab is also the ellipsis of crab angle.

crab is also the clipping of carabiner.

crab meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

crab in Hindi

crustacean
केकड़ा kekṛā, केंकड़ा kẽkṛā, सरतान sartān, कर्कट karkaṭ

crab in Tamil

crustacean
நண்டு naṇṭu

crab in Marathi

crustacean
खेकडा khekḍā

crab in Urdu

crustacean
کیکْڑا kekṛā, گیگْڑا gegṛā
More languagesFewer languages
crab in Bengali
কাঁকড়া kãkoṛa
crab in Telugu
పీత pīta
crab in Malayalam
ഞണ്ട് ñaṇṭŭ
crab in Kannada
ಏಡಿ ēḍi
crab in Punjabi
ਕੇਕਡ਼ਾ, ਕੇਕਡ਼ੇ
crab in Gujarati
કરચલો karaclo
crab in Odia
କାଁକଡ଼ା, କ୍ର୍ଯାବ୍ କରିବାକୁ
crab in Sanskrit
कर्कट karkaṭa
crab in Sinhala
කකුළුවා kakuḷuwā
crab in Assamese
কেঁকোৰা kẽküra
crab in Nepali
गँगटा gãgaṭā
crab in Pashto
چنګاښ čangāx̌, نېښي nex̌í
crab in Tagalog
alimango, katang
crab in Arabic
سَرَطَان saraṭān, سَلْطَعون salṭaʕūn
crab in Malay
ketam, kepiting, yuyu
crab in Indonesian
ketam, kepiting
crab in Thai
ปู bpuu
crab in Vietnamese
cua
crab in Myanmar
ကဏန်း ka.nan:
Dhivehi
ކަކުނި kakuni
Dzongkha
སྦལཔ་ཀང་ཀུར sbalp kang kur

Examples of crab in a sentence

  • It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.1915, W.S. Maugham, “chapter 116”, in Of Human Bondage:
  • Another shouted order and again the squares crabbed sideways.2015, Andrew Swanston, Waterloo: The Bravest Man, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with crab

Synonyms of crab

Forms of crab

Noun
pluralcrabs
pluralCrabs
Verb
third-person singular presentcrabs
present participlecrabbing
past participlecrabbed
pastcrabbed

Plural of crab: crabs

Origin of crab

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.

From Middle English crabbe (“wild apple”), of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic, cognate with Swedish dialect skrabba (“sour apple, apple cart”).

Possibly a corruption of the genus name Carapa

Words formed from crab

Phrases with crab

138 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with crab

17 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about crab

What does crab mean?
Crab means any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
What is crab in Hindi?
Crab in Hindi is केकड़ा (kekṛā), केंकड़ा (kẽkṛā), सरतान (sartān). See Crab meaning in Hindi.
How do you use crab in a sentence?
It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.
What part of speech is crab?
Crab can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce crab?
Crab is pronounced /kɹæb/ (UK).
What is the plural of crab?
The plural of crab is crabs.

Words near crab in the dictionary

  1. cra-cra
  2. craal
  3. craaled
  4. craaling
  5. craals
  6. crab
  7. crab angle
  8. crab angles
  9. crab apple
  10. crab apples
  11. crab appletree

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crab (page history and authors); Crab (page history and authors); crab (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); crab (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-crab.ogg.

Cite this entry: “crab.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crab. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.