Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use crab in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

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. Example: “Despite its name, the hermit crab is not a true crab!”

Examples of crab by meaning

nounAny of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.

  • Despite its name, the hermit crab is not a true crab!

nounA 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

nounAn 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.

nounA defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.

  • It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.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.1940, Horace Annesley Vachell, Little Tyrannies

verbTo ruin.

  • ‘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

verbTo complain.

  • “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

verbTo 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

verbTo 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
  • Another shouted order and again the squares crabbed sideways.2015, Andrew Swanston, Waterloo: The Bravest Man, →ISBN

More sentences with crab

  • Oh for a hotel on the oceanside and lobster or crab at every dinner!From the entry oceanside
  • I have childhood memories of muddy crabs scampering over mudflats at low tide.From the entry childhood memory
  • We went fishing for crabs by the pier.From the entry fish
  • They held a crab feed on the beach.From the entry feed
  • Our double play special tonight is scallops & crab.From the entry double play
  • Huge eyeless crabs roam the ocean floor around hydrothermal vents.From the entry eyeless
  • His favorite seafood is hardshell crabs.From the entry hardshell
  • As coconut crabs live on the land, the aesthetascs on their antennae are shorter and blunter than those of other crabs and look more like those of insects.From the entry aesthetasc
  • These were ‘wildings’, wild crab apples (Malus sylvestris), a miniature of today's, native to the British Isles.2023, Ray Mears, chapter 1, in British Woodland, Ebury Spotlight, →ISBN. From the entry wilding
  • You can crab block him but improvise and overcome this big mamma jamma!2022, Steven H. Smith, Shout at the Day 2: The Next Year. From the entry mamma jamma
  • Mrs S loves crab but I can take it or leave it alone.2022 March 8, Sn!pe, “Food Glorious Food”, in alt.sixtyplus (Usenet). From the entry take it or leave it alone
  • His daughter Victorina remembers her dad coming home with the biggest crab legs you have ever seen.2022 June 24, Legacy Funeral Home & Cremation Services, “[Alaska Obituaries] Victor Dushkin”, in Anchorage Daily News, Anchorage, Alas.…. From the entry Victorina
  • In a humanfree world, crabs would still be pulled apart limb by limb by otters.2019, “The End All Suffering FAQ”, in OnlyOneSolution.org, archived from the original on 30 Oct 2019. From the entry human-free
  • The Sterns, instead, saw virtue in small-town crab houses and big-city pie houses.2017, John T. Edge, “Carter Country”, in The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN…. From the entry pie house
  • The crab spider of South America feeds mostly on turtle ants.2016, Mark E. Lasbury, The Realization of Star Trek Technologies, Springer, page 38. From the entry turtle ant
  • Some golden fruit still hung from a crab apple and drew a chatter of birds.2015, Julia Rochester, The House at the Edge of the World, Penguin Books Limited. From the entry chatter
  • It is rarer to find paired edible crabs, and potential peelers need to be tested.2013, Alan Vaughan, Mike Ladle, Hooked On Bass, →ISBN. From the entry peeler
  • Marcus Seltz, who can take down a bucket of crab legs like a freaking combine.2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 121. From the entry take down
  • A cast of blue crabs weathered the underwater turbulence by clinging to coral with their claws.2011, J. E. Bright, Deepwater Disaster, Stone Arch Books. From the entry cast
  • Mound one-quarter of the crab salad onto the center of each bowl of gelée.2011, Colby Garrelts, Megan Garrelts, with Bonjwing Lee, Bluestem: The Cookbook, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, →ISBN…. From the entry gelée
  • Deviled crabs are the only nonbarbecue item, and a vegetable plate is served for nonmeat eaters.2011, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Frommer's Portable Savannah, page 65. From the entry nonmeat
  • Rock pools are a haven for crabs, crayfish, shrimp and devil fish.2011, Insight Guides, Guernsey, London: APA Publications, →ISBN, page 81. From the entry devilfish
  • Porcelain crabs (Galatheoidea: Porcellanidae) and the hairy stone crab (Lomisoidea: Lomisidae) are also highly carcinised.2011, Shane T[imothy] Ahyong, Kareen A. Schnabel, Enrique Macpherson, “Phylogeny and Fossil Record of Marine Squat Lobsters”, in Gary C.…. From the entry carcinisation
  • The majority of true crabs are aquatic, or at least virtually so.2010, Michael Samways, Peter Hitchins, Orty Bourquin, Jock Henwood, Tropical Island Recovery: Cousine Island, Seychelles, page 95. From the entry swimming crab
  • Moroccan curried crab and streaks of minty, lemony yogurt add luxury to a supersimple zucchini soup ($14).2009 January 24, Corey Mintz, “Lunching well at Forte bistro and lounge”, in Toronto Star. From the entry Moroccan
  • The congee with crab is a best seller, while wonton are generously filled and flavoursome.2008, “Chee Kei”, in Hong Kong, Macau 2009: Restaurants & Hotels (Michelin Guide), Clermont-Ferrand: Michelin, →ISBN, page 65. From the entry wonton
  • No work except for blueberrying in August, crab picking occasionally, and making pine wreaths in December.2008, Carrie Jones, Love (And Other Uses for Duct Tape), Flux, published 2008, →ISBN, page 74. From the entry blueberrying
  • Night time is best and big baits are needed to combat lice and other menaces like crabs.2008, Rex Hunt, Fishing Guide to Melbourne and Surrounds, page 77. From the entry gummy shark

Meaning of crab

  1. 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.
  2. noun The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
  3. noun Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.

Full definition of crab

Questions about crab in a sentence

How do you use crab in a sentence?
Crab is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Despite its name, the hermit crab is not a true crab!”
What is a short sentence with crab?
“His favorite seafood is hardshell crabs.”
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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crab (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use crab in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/crab. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.