crew

plural crews

1. A group of people together
   1. obsoleteAny company of people; an assemblage; a throng.

      Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?

      1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

      1 more example

      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.

      2 more examples

      He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to some strange exceptional process of decay.

      1905, H. G. Wells, The Empire of the Ants

      There's a change of driver halfway at Crianlarich. Glasgow crews bring the 35-year-old Class 156 north, then wait to take over the next train back south. Crews from Mallaig, Oban and Fort William take their trains from the coast to Crianlarich and swap over. There's a tiny rest room on the platform, with a microwave and a sink, while they wait. Some drivers are signed all the way to the city. Most are not.

      2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, pages 37-38

   3. A group of people working together on a task.

      The crews competed to cut the most timber.

      Synonyms: team, gang

   4. artThe group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast.

      There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!

      1 more example

      The crews for different movies would all come down to the bar at night.

   5. derogatoryinformaloftenA close group of friends.

      I’d look out for that whole crew down at Jack’s.

   6. derogatoryoftenA set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.

      1861 William Weston Patton, (version of) John Brown's Body 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.

      1 more example

      Malignant principles bear fruit in kind and the Revolution did no more than practice what men had been taught by the abandoned crew of philosophers.

      1950, Bernard Nicholas Schilling, Conservative England and the Case Against Voltaire, page 266

      Synonyms: crowd, flock, lot, gang

   7. scoutingA group of Rovers.
   8. slangdancingA hip-hop or b-boying group.

      We decided we needed another rapper in the crew and spent months looking.

      2003, Jennifer Guglielmo, Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White?, →ISBN, page 150

      4 more examples

      And Jay cuts the records every day of the week / And we are the crew that can never be meek

      1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC

      The most popular and critically acclaimed rap and deejay “crews”—Run-D.M.C., Whodini, L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys, the Fat Boys, Public Enemy, Full Force, Salt & Pepa, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Mantronix, U.T.F.O., et al.—were spawned on that city's streets.

      1988 February 7, Carly Darling, “L.A.—The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop”, in Los Angeles Times

      In b-boying culture, a group of b-boys or b-girls who dance and battle together are referred to as a crew.

      2016, Sophy Smith, Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration, Routledge, →ISBN, page 10

      […] mutating into all-star line-ups of emcees spitting hot bars over familiar beats, then to a single crew spitting bars over familiar beats, then eventually to a single crew (or artist) spitting bars over unfamiliar beats.

      2021, Jehnie I. Burns, Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation, page 138

      Synonyms: posse, band, group

   9. hobbiesA rowing team manning a single shell.

      If a crew feather much under water, it is a good plan to seat them in a row on a bench, and give each man a stick to handle as an oar.

      1888, W.B. Woodgate, Boating, page 71

2. A person in a crew
   1. pluralA member of the crew of a vessel or plant.

      One crew died in the accident.

      1 more example

      2026 September 9, Marco Silva, Benedict Garman, Adam Durbin, "RNLI volunteer targeted online and branded 'traitor' after Portsmouth protests" (BBC Verify) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly47p5vk63o "I'll be back on the boat when the pager goes off," he said, adding: "It'd just be nice for those people who call me a traitor to know that I'm not a traitor. I'm just a volunteer crew."

   2. pluralartA worker on a dramatic production who is not part of the cast.

      There were three actors and six crew on the set.

   3. pluralnauticalA member of a ship's company who is not an officer.

      The officers and crew assembled on the deck.

      1 more example

      There are quarters for three officers and five crew.

      Synonyms: crewer

3. USuncountablehobbiesThe sport of competitive rowing.

   Two Andover classmates, Al Wilson and Al Lindley, both went out for crew in our freshman year at Yale.

   1989, Benjamin Spock, Mary Morgan, Spock on Spock, →ISBN, page 71

   1 more example

   The University of Virginia belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and competes interscholastically in basketball, baseball, crew, cross country, fencing, football, golf, indoor track, lacrosse, polo, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling.

   1973, University of Virginia Undergraduate Record

present singular third person crews · participle present crewing · participle past crewed · past crewed

1. intransitivetransitiveTo be a member of a vessel's crew.

   The ship was crewed by fifty sailors.

   2 more examples

   We crewed together on a fishing boat last year.

   On 3 Feb 1982 at Podmoscovnoe in the USSR, a Mil Mi-26 heavy-lift helicopter (NATO code-name "Halo"), crewed by G.V. Alfeurov and L.A. Indeyev (co-pilot), lifted a total mass of 6,560 ft.

   1994, Peter Matthews (editor), The Guinness Book Of Records, 1994, page 340

2. transitiveTo be a member of a work or production crew.

   The film was crewed and directed by students.

3. transitiveTo supply workers or sailors for a crew.

   Steele crewed the boat with men from his own regiment and volunteers from John Wood's detachment.

   2003, Kirk C. Jenkins, The Battle Rages Higher, →ISBN, page 42

   1 more example

   The seafood companies crewed huge trawlers with new fishermen, many of whom were fish-plant workers, since much of the work on board a modern trawler is fish processing.

   1997, Mark Kurlansky, Cod, page 182

4. nauticalTo do the proper work of a sailor.

   The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.

5. nauticalTo take on, recruit (new) crew.

   The two ships will be crewing in the latter half of September.

   1967 January, “Tampa”, in The Pilot, page 30

1. UKarchaicpastsimple past of crow (“make the characteristic sound of a rooster”).

   It was still dark when the cock crew.

   1 more example

   And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted — "Open then the Door! You know how little while we have to stay, And, once departed, may return no more."

   1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1

plural crews

1. East MidlandsNorthern EnglandScotlandUKdialectalA pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs

   Between the shippon and the pig-crew, with the wind blowing over from the vegetable ground.

   2004, Gillian Cross, On the Edge, →ISBN, page 7

plural crews

1. dateddialectalThe Manx shearwater.

1. Internethumorousnonstandardparticiplepastsimple past and past participle of cry

   the cry I crew

1. A habitational surname from Welsh.
2. A male given name transferred from the surname.
3. A townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
4. A townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

1. abbreviationacronymuncountablelibrary scienceAcronym of continuous review, evaluation, and weeding.

1. USabbreviationacronymgovernmentAcronym of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

   “Defendants’ representations to this Court that Mr. Musk is not running DOGE are tantamount to legal gaslighting,” CREW said.

   2025 March 30, Tierney Sneed, “Is DOGE actually an agency? The answer could have major ramifications”, in CNN