crue

Noun

crew (plural crews)

1. (obsolete) Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.
   • There a noble crew / Of Lordes and Ladies stood on every side.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7
2. A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft.
   • If you need help, please contact a member of the crew.
3. A group of people working together on a task.
   • The crews competed to cut the most timber.

   Synonyms:

   team, gang

4. The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast.
   • There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!
5. (derogatory, informal, often) A close group of friends.
   • I’d look out for that whole crew down at Jack’s.
6. (derogatory, often) A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.
   • He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
     And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;
     They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,
     But his soul is marching on.1861 William Weston Patton, (version of) John Brown's Body

   Synonyms:

   crowd, flock, lot, gang

See all 24 meanings of crew