"crawly" meaning in English

See crawly in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: crawlier [comparative], crawliest [superlative]
Etymology: From crawl + -y. Etymology templates: {{ety|en|:af|crawl|-y|text=+|tree=1}} From crawl + -y. Head templates: {{en-adj|crawlier}} crawly (comparative crawlier, superlative crawliest)
  1. Crawling around.
    Sense id: en-crawly-en-adj-3KN~-2UG Categories (other): English terms suffixed with -y Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -y: 51 49
  2. As if covered in moving things such as insects.
    Sense id: en-crawly-en-adj-pvdIqSLY Categories (other): English entries referencing ambiguous etymons, English entries referencing missing etymons, English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons, English entries with etymology texts, English entries with etymon, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -y, Pages using etymon with no ID, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Pages with etymon Disambiguation of English entries referencing ambiguous etymons: 28 72 Disambiguation of English entries referencing missing etymons: 28 72 Disambiguation of English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons: 28 72 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology texts: 28 72 Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 26 74 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 14 86 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -y: 51 49 Disambiguation of Pages using etymon with no ID: 23 77 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 13 87 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 89 Disambiguation of Pages with etymon: 17 83
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: creepy-crawly

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":af",
        "3": "crawl",
        "4": "-y",
        "text": "+",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "From crawl + -y.",
      "name": "ety"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From crawl + -y.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "crawlier",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "crawliest",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "crawlier"
      },
      "expansion": "crawly (comparative crawlier, superlative crawliest)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "creepy-crawly"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -y",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1969-1970, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure\nAnother out-of-site thing is in the 2 yrs I've known that place no-one has ever seen a crawly bug, only flies. Not even a spider."
        },
        {
          "text": "a crawly insect"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Crawling around."
      ],
      "id": "en-crawly-en-adj-3KN~-2UG"
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "28 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries referencing ambiguous etymons",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "28 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries referencing missing etymons",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "28 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "28 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with etymology texts",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "26 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with etymon",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 86",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -y",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 77",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages using etymon with no ID",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 87",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "11 89",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 83",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with etymon",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "a crawly sensation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "As if covered in moving things such as insects."
      ],
      "id": "en-crawly-en-adj-pvdIqSLY"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "homophone": "Crawley"
    }
  ],
  "word": "crawly"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries referencing ambiguous etymons",
    "English entries referencing missing etymons",
    "English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons",
    "English entries with etymology texts",
    "English entries with etymon",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms suffixed with -y",
    "Pages using etymon with no ID",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Pages with etymon"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":af",
        "3": "crawl",
        "4": "-y",
        "text": "+",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "From crawl + -y.",
      "name": "ety"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From crawl + -y.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "crawlier",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "crawliest",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "crawlier"
      },
      "expansion": "crawly (comparative crawlier, superlative crawliest)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "creepy-crawly"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1969-1970, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure\nAnother out-of-site thing is in the 2 yrs I've known that place no-one has ever seen a crawly bug, only flies. Not even a spider."
        },
        {
          "text": "a crawly insect"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Crawling around."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "a crawly sensation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "As if covered in moving things such as insects."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "homophone": "Crawley"
    }
  ],
  "word": "crawly"
}

Download raw JSONL data for crawly meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.