Library / English Dictionary

CRAB

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: crabbed    , crabbing   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A stroke of the oar that either misses the water or digs too deeply

Example:

he caught a crab and lost the race

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("crab" is a kind of...):

row; rowing (the act of rowing as a sport)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Decapod having eyes on short stalks and a broad flattened carapace with a small abdomen folded under the thorax and pincers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("crab" is a kind of...):

decapod; decapod crustacean (crustaceans characteristically having five pairs of locomotor appendages each joined to a segment of the thorax)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crab"):

spider crab (any of numerous crabs with very long legs and small triangular bodies)

Menippe mercenaria; stone crab (large edible crab of the southern coast of the United States (particularly Florida))

hard-shell crab (edible crab that has not recently molted and so has a hard shell)

soft-shell crab; soft-shelled crab (edible crab that has recently molted and not yet formed its new shell)

Cancer magister; Dungeness crab (small edible crab of Pacific coast of North America)

Cancer irroratus; rock crab (crab of eastern coast of North America)

Cancer borealis; Jonah crab (large red deep-water crab of the eastern coast of North America)

swimming crab (marine crab with some legs flattened and fringed for swimming)

fiddler crab (burrowing crab of American coastal regions having one claw much enlarged in the male)

pea crab (tiny soft-bodied crab living commensally in the mantles of certain bivalve mollusks)

Alaska crab; Alaska king crab; Alaskan king crab; king crab; Paralithodes camtschatica (large edible crab of northern Pacific waters especially along the coasts of Alaska and Japan)

Holonyms ("crab" is a member of...):

Brachyura; suborder Brachyura (an order of crustaceans (including true crabs) having a reduced abdomen folded against the ventral surface)

Derivation:

crab (fish for crab)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A louse that infests the pubic region of the human body

Synonyms:

crab; crab louse; Phthirius pubis; pubic louse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("crab" is a kind of...):

louse; sucking louse (wingless usually flattened bloodsucking insect parasitic on warm-blooded animals)

Holonyms ("crab" is a member of...):

genus Phthirius; genus Phthirus; Phthirius; Phthirus (true lice: crab lice)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The edible flesh of any of various crabs

Synonyms:

crab; crabmeat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("crab" is a kind of...):

shellfish (meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crab"):

blue crab (Atlantic crab; most common source of fresh crabmeat)

crab legs (legs of especially Alaska king crabs)

soft-shell crab; soft-shelled crab (freshly molted crab with new shell still tender and flexible)

Japanese crab (crabmeat usually canned; from Japan)

Alaska crab; Alaska king crab; Alaskan king crab; king crab (meat of large cold-water crab; mainly leg meat)

Dungeness crab (flesh of Cancer magister (Dungeness crab))

stone crab (pale flesh with delicate texture and flavor; found in Florida but now very rare)

Holonyms ("crab" is a part of...):

crab cocktail (a cocktail of cold cooked crabmeat and a sauce)

Derivation:

crab (fish for crab)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The fourth sign of the zodiac; the sun is in this sign from about June 21 to July 22

Synonyms:

Cancer; Cancer the Crab; Crab

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

house; mansion; planetary house; sign; sign of the zodiac; star sign ((astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided)

Sense 6

Meaning:

(astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Cancer

Synonyms:

Cancer; Crab

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Crab" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Domain category:

astrology; star divination (a pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moon)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A quarrelsome grouch

Synonyms:

crab; crabby person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("crab" is a kind of...):

churl; crank; crosspatch; grouch; grump (a bad-tempered person)

Derivation:

crab (complain)

crabby (annoyed and irritable)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Complain

Example:

What was he hollering about?

Synonyms:

beef; bellyache; bitch; crab; gripe; grouse; holler; squawk

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "crab" is one way to...):

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off (express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

crab (a quarrelsome grouch)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fish for crab

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "crab" is one way to...):

fish (catch or try to catch fish or shellfish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

In the summer they like to go out and crab

Derivation:

crab (decapod having eyes on short stalks and a broad flattened carapace with a small abdomen folded under the thorax and pincers)

crab (the edible flesh of any of various crabs)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Scurry sideways like a crab

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "crab" is one way to...):

scamper; scurry; scuttle; skitter (to move about or proceed hurriedly)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Direct (an aircraft) into a crosswind

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "crab" is one way to...):

channelise; channelize; direct; guide; head; maneuver; manoeuver; manoeuvre; point; steer (direct the course; determine the direction of travelling)

Domain category:

air; air travel; aviation (travel via aircraft)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out on each side.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some, including crayfishes, live in freshwater habitats; others (e.g., sand fleas, land crabs, and sow bugs) live in moist terrestrial environments.

(Crustacean, NCI Thesaurus)

The researchers suspected that mussels, by paving the marsh surface with their ribbed shells, attracted burrowing crabs that excavate underground water storage compartments.

(Biodiversity in salt marshes builds climate resilience, NSF)

The three types of lice that live on humans are head lice, body lice (also called clothes lice), and pubic lice ("crabs").

(Lice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

On Earth, worms and clams that live in the muddy sea beds require 1 mg per liter, bottom feeders such as crabs and oysters 3 mg per liter, and spawning migratory fish 6 mg per liter, all within 0.2 moles per cubic meter, 6.4 mg per liter.

(Simple animals could live in Martian brines, Wikinews)

Actually, there were crabs.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The technology mixes chitosan —a natural polymer extracted from the shell of crustaceans such as shrimp, lobsters, and crabs— with quaternary ammonium salts, chemical compounds that have antimicrobial properties and are commonly used in controlled concentrations in food industries and as domestic sanitisers.

(Protective bio-shell could extend egg shelf life, SciDev.Net)

'You could almost narrate the body changes and narrate the dream. She sees a crab and her color starts to change a little bit, then she turns all dark, octopuses will do that when they leave the bottom.' 'This is a camouflage, like she's just subdued a crab and she's just going to sit there and eat it, and she doesn't want anyone to notice her.' 'It's a very unusual behavior to see the color come and go on her mantle like that, just to be able to see all the different color patterns flashing one after the other, you don't normally see that when an animal's sleeping.'

(Octopuses can dream, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Threatened social interest species include a number of stingless bees (known locally as uruçu, mandaçaia, and jandaíra), swamp ghost crabs, blue land crabs, a freshwater shrimp locally known as pitu, mangrove root crabs, catfish, yellowmouth groupers, jewfish, hammerhead sharks, among others.

(Over 300 animal species threatened in Bahia, Agência Brasil)

I shall bring Crab Wilson with me, and finally arrange the conditions of our little wager.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)