crab

plural crabs

1. countableuncountableAny crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
2. uncountableThe 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. Various other animals that resemble true crabs:
   1. countableuncountableAny of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.

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

   2. countableuncountableA horseshoe crab.
4. countableuncountableA 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

5. countableinformaluncountablein plural crabsAn 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.

6. abbreviationellipsisuncountableaeronauticsEllipsis of crab angle.

   The pilot had to hold fifteen degrees of crab during the approach to keep her plane from getting blown off the localizer course.

7. countableslanguncountablecard gamesA playing card with the rank of three.
8. countableuncountablehobbiesA position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
9. countableuncountableA defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.

   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

   1 more example

   -- "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 pleasant place." There was something in the secretary's manner that puzzled Philip. It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.

   1915, W.S. Maugham, “chapter 116”, in Of Human Bondage

10. countabledateduncountableAn unsold book that is returned to the publisher.

    […] 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

    1 more example

    […] 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 publications, three thousand were crabs, that makes five thousand."

    1844, Albert Henry Payne, Payne's universum, or pictorial world, page 99

11. SingaporecountableslanguncountablegovernmentOn an insignia, a coat of arms symbol representing a senior rank.
12. countablederogatoryuncountableBlood slangA member of the Crips.
13. countableinformaluncountableA pubic louse.

    Pthirus pubis PUBIC LOUSE, aka CRABS

    2023, translated in 2025, Berta Páramo and translated by Marc Correa Haro, Lice: How to Survive on Humans, page 48

present singular third person crabs · participle present crabbing · participle past crabbed · past crabbed

1. intransitiveTo fish for crabs.
2. USslangtransitiveTo 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

   1 more example

   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

3. intransitiveTo complain.

   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

   1 more example

   “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

4. transitiveTo 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. intransitiveTo drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).

   Another shouted order and again the squares crabbed sideways.

   2015, Andrew Swanston, Waterloo: The Bravest Man, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   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.

   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

   1 more example

   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

7. transitivebroadcastingTo 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. transitiveaeronauticsTo navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
9. World War IobsoleteTo 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. rareTo 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. biologyTo make a loud, rapid rattling sound when scared, stressed, or agitated.

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 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   1 more example

   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 confession

   1741, 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.

present singular third person crabs · participle present crabbing · participle past crabbed · past crabbed

1. obsoleteTo irritate, make surly or sour
2. To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
3. BritishdialectalTo 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

   2 more examples

   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

   The Shiremans had a down on him over stores he'd condemned as not fit for dogs, let alone able seamen, and they'd got wind he was a socialist, and they crabbed him all over the shipping companies' offices.

   2021, H. De Vere Stacpoole, Vanderdecken

4. obsoletetransitiveTo offend or insult.

   If I think one thing and speak another, / I will both crab Christ and our Ladie His mother.

plural crabs

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

plural crabs

1. abbreviationclippinginformalClipping of carabiner, modified based on likening the shape of a carabiner to a crab's claw.

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.

1. astrologyThe 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

   5 more examples

   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

   The Crab was said to be sent by Juno to bite Hercules in the heel; the Scorpion to have been sent by Ceres to sting Orion.

   1862, [Frances Rolleston], Mazzaroth, or, The Constellations, London: Rivingtons, page 38

   The Crab and the Scorpion much resemble each other, as indeed they do in many other instances, the former being a reduplication of the latter.

   1882, Robert Brown, On a German Astronomico-astrological Manuscript, and on the Origin of the Signs of the Zodiac, London: J.B. Nichols and Sons, page 8

   The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly Twins, And next the Crab, the Lion shines, The Virgin and the Scales; The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-Goat, The Man that carries the Water-pot, And Fish with glittering scales.

   1893, E. W. Bullinger, Witness of the Stars, London: The author, page 16

   Now, if you went down into the forest where the spring gum-tips gleam gold and ruby in whatever sunshine, Heaven thinks fit to apportion at this season to residents of the Dandenongs (who surely were all born Aquarians) what sign of the Zodiac would you expect to meet? [...] Not Taurus the Bull, who is paddocked, or Cancer the Crab, who lives underground in these regions.

   1947 November 14, Mountain District Free Press and Frentree Gully News, Tecoma, Vic., page 8, column 2