Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use crawl in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Crawl means to move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby. Example: “Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.”

Examples of crawl by meaning

verbTo move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a...

  • Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.
  • 'Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,' he said.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter VII, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  • The other species was a scale worm, Lepidonotus cirratus, which, when undisturbed, crawled rapidly about, reminding one of a centipede, but with the addition of numbers of hairy spines at each side and over-lapping scales.1915, Vasculum (Substitute), volumes 1-5, page 84

verbTo move or progress slowly or laboriously, or with great difficulty (for example due to feebleness) or frequent stops.

  • The rush-hour traffic crawled around the bypass.

verbTo advance by guile and servility; to act in a servile manner, trying to please someone in order to gain favor.

  • Don’t come crawling to me with your useless apologies!

verbTo spread by extending tendrils, stems, or branches; to creep or trail (as a vine).

  • The old house was covered in vines crawling over every available surface.

verbTo swim using the crawl stroke.

  • I think I'll crawl instead of breaststroke.
  • I think I'll crawl the next hundred metres.

verbTo feel a swarming sensation; to have a sensation like that produced by insects crawling over one's body.

  • The horrible sight made my skin crawl.

verbTo move over (an area) on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along.

  • The baby crawled the entire second floor.
  • His Slav features regarded me with the wooden indifference he would have shown to an insect crawling the wall.1944 August, Blue Book magazine

verbTo move over (an area) slowly, with frequent stops.

  • They crawled the downtown bars.
  • Eric had crawled the downtown bar scene with these guys many nights, after gigs and back when they were all in college together.2019, Leigh Landry, Cajun Two-Step: The Complete Series, Leigh Landry

More sentences with crawl

  • My son was able to squeeze in the tight crawl space to retrieve the cat.From the entry squeeze in
  • A lobe of lava was crawling down the side of the volcano.From the entry lobe
  • The sound of fingernails on a chalkboard just makes my skin crawl.From the entry make someone's skin crawl
  • They went out for a night on the town, but it turned into a pub crawl.From the entry pub crawl
  • The scene of the incident was crawling with reporters for days afterwards.From the entry crawl with
  • Oh my Goddess, I cannot believe that just crawled out of the sink!From the entry oh my Goddess
  • He is so disgusting he makes my skin crawl.From the entry skin
  • I was battered last night on our pub crawl.From the entry batter
  • I felt something crawling up my arm.From the entry up
  • The worm crawls through the ground.From the entry ground
  • The area was crawling with all sorts of vermin: fleas, lice, mice, and rats to name a few. Thus, we felt as if vermin were crawling over us.From the entry vermin
  • If you expect to seal up every possible source of draftiness, you'll have to get your hands dirty — there will be some kneeling and crawling involved.From the entry get one's hands dirty
  • Like a cat he crawled through the pines, watching the hen pheasant.2025, Daniel P. Mannix, The Fox and the Hound. From the entry upcraned
  • Lambda, on the other hand, was practically giddy when she finished crawling through the lander.2022, James Breakwell, The Chosen Twelve. From the entry lambda
  • Ten minutes later he crawled up the stairs again with two perfect caffè macchiatos.2021, Peter Scott-Morgan, Peter 2.0, Penguin Books, published 2022. From the entry caffè macchiato
  • You could easily pile on the pounds with a 'cafe crawl' along this line!2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in Rail, page 51. From the entry pile on the pounds
  • "I had the DfT crawling all over things all the time," says Carne.2020 July 29, “Network News: Carne: "Treasury has its hands on the railway joystick already"”, in RAIL, number 910, page 8. From the entry best-informed
  • They walk, crawl, and climb all over your screen and interact with elements on web pages.2017 August, Jarno Le Conté, Shimeji Browser Extension, archived from the original on 26 Aug 2017. From the entry shimeji
  • The train crawled through an unlovely smokescape of towering chimneys and squatting kilns.2017, Jonathan Tulloch, Larkinland. From the entry smokescape
  • They crawl about 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) to their mother's pouch.2015, Rebecca E. Hirsch, “The Life Cycle of Siberian Tigers”, in Siberian Tigers: Camouflaged Hunting Mammals (Comparing Animal Traits)…. From the entry imp
  • The weaselly little creature crawled out from under the couch—more rodential than canine, Pepe thought.2015, John Irving, chapter 1, in Avenue of Mysteries, Canada: Knopf. From the entry weaselly
  • They emerged from behind headstones, crawled out of bushes, and peered around large trees.2015, Maria Mayer, Crone. From the entry ghoster
  • He'd already crawl through a mile of broken glass just to drink her bathwater.2015, Ted Bell, White Death, page 183. From the entry drink someone's bathwater
  • “He's upstairs.” As soon as she said this, a loud knocking came from the crawl space below.2014, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, I Remember You: A Ghost Story, Minotaur Books, →ISBN. From the entry crick
  • Once settled, they preen, crawl or sting, as is their wont.2014, Terence Park, “The Old House”, in Ice Made and Other Stories, page 87. From the entry God's work
  • It's like crawling back into your mother.” “Is that something people wanna do?”2013 November 12, Gabe Liedman, “Old School” (15:48 from the start), in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 1, episode 8, spoken by Jimmy Brogan…. From the entry shvitz
  • Liam studies giant sea sponges, some of them two meters tall; a man could crawl within them.2011, Prism International, volume 50, page 19. From the entry pitroom

Meaning of crawl

  1. verb To move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby.
  2. verb To move or progress slowly or laboriously, or with great difficulty (for example due to feebleness) or frequent stops.
  3. verb To advance by guile and servility; to act in a servile manner, trying to please someone in order to gain favor.

Full definition of crawl

Questions about crawl in a sentence

How do you use crawl in a sentence?
Crawl is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.”
What is a short sentence with crawl?
“They crawled the downtown bars.”
What does crawl mean?
Crawl means to move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crawl (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 crawl in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/crawl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.