crawling

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

US /ˈkrɔlɪŋ/ UK /ˈkrɔːlɪŋ/ See IPA manual

adj verb

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... creeping crawly slithering squirming

Opposites

striding racing

Word family

Related forms crawl crawler

Etymology

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

Actions & Processes Word Formation & Derivatives

# crawling

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj, verb
**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
- Actions & Processes
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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crawling

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