crab

Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.

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:

(uncountable) The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.

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

Various other animals that resemble true crabs:

Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.

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:

Although crabs themselves are an easily treated inconvenience, the patient and his partner(s) clearly run major STD risks.

Pthirus pubis
Pthirus pubis#Translingual

(in plural crabs, informal) An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).

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

(uncountable, aviation) The angle by which an aircraft's nose is pointed upwind of its groundtrack to compensate for crosswinds during an approach to landing; its crab angle.

(poker slang) A playing card with the rank of three.

(rowing) A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.

-- "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:

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:

A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.

[…] 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:

[…] 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:

(dated) An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.

en-noun

crab (countable and uncountable, plural crabs)

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-. 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 krypa (“to creep, crawl”) etc.


crab

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:

‘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:

“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, →OCLC, page 127:

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:

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:

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:

Another shouted order and again the squares crabbed sideways.

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

(intransitive) To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).

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:

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.

To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces.

(transitive, aviation) To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.

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:

(transitive, film, television) To move (a camera) sideways.

(obsolete, World War I), to 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.

“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:

en-verb

crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)

crabs (present singular third-person)
crabbing (participle present)
crabbed (participle past)
crabbed (past)


crab

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]:

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:

The tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.

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

A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.

A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.

A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.

A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.

A claw for anchoring a portable machine.

From Middle English crabbe (“wild apple”), of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic, cognate with Swedish dialect scrabba.


crab

(obsolete) To irritate, make surly or sour

To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.

Get you to bed, drab, courage Or l'll so crab your shoulders!

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:

(British dialect) To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick


crab

The tree species Carapa guianensis, native to South America.

Possibly a corruption of the genus name Carapa


crab

Alternative form of crabbe (“crabapple”)

Of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic.


crab

crabi (plural)
crab (accusative indefinite nominative singular)
crabul (accusative definite nominative singular)
crabi (accusative indefinite nominative plural)
crabii (accusative definite nominative plural)
crab (indefinite singular)
crabului (definite singular)
crabi (indefinite plural)
crabilor (definite plural)
crabule (singular vocative)
crabilor (plural vocative)