crab

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A sea creature with a hard shell, ten legs, and large front claws.

   We watched a crab scuttle sideways across the beach.

2. 2
   noun

   The meat of this creature, eaten as food.

   We ordered fresh crab at the seafood restaurant.

3. 3
   noun

   A bad-tempered, irritable person.

   Don't be such a crab — it's only a game.

4. 4
   verb

   To complain in an annoyed way.

   The children crabbed about the long car journey.

From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“scratch, claw at”), a metathesised o-grade of *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). More at carve. Cognates See also Dutch krab, Low German Krabb, Danish krabbe, Swedish krabba. Further cognates with frequentative-infix are Saterland Frisian krabbelje (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch krabbelen (“to scratch”) and German krabbeln (“to crawl”). Possibly related to English creep and Swedish kry…

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