crawling C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities US /ˈkrɔlɪŋ/ UK /ˈkrɔːlɪŋ/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 adj moving slowly on hands and knees or close to the ground The floor was crawling with ants near the spilled sugar. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 adj · moving slowly on hands and... creepingcrawlyslitheringsquirming ↔ Opposites stridingracing Word family Related forms crawlcrawler Etymology AI details Present participle of 'crawl', from Middle English 'craulen', borrowed from Old Norse 'krafla' ('to claw, scrabble with the hands'). craulen Middle English krafla Old Norse View etymology graph -> Topics Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # crawling **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** adj **IPA (US):** /ˈkrɔlɪŋ/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈkrɔːlɪŋ/ ## Meanings 1. moving slowly on hands and knees or close to the ground ## Examples - The floor was crawling with ants near the spilled sugar. ## Synonyms - creeping - crawly - slithering - squirming ## Antonyms - striding - racing ## Related Forms - crawl - crawler ## Roots and Affixes - Root: craulen - Root: krafla ## Etymology Present participle of 'crawl', from Middle English 'craulen', borrowed from Old Norse 'krafla' ('to claw, scrabble with the hands'). ## AI Etymology Crawling is the present participle of 'crawl', from Middle English 'craulen', borrowed from Old Norse 'krafla' ('to claw, scrabble with the hands'). Important recorded forms include craulen (Middle English) and krafla (Old Norse). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers moving slowly on hands and knees or close to the ground. The wider family includes related words such as crawl and crawler. ## Topics - Describing Qualities - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown