crew
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kroo͞
ipa: /kɹuː/
ipa: [kɹuʊ̯]
ipa: /kɹu/
rhymes: -uː
homophone: crewe
homophone: Crewe
homophone: cru
Forms: form: crews
Etymology: From Middle English crue, from Old French creue (“an increase, recruit, military reinforcement”), the feminine past participle of creistre (“grow”), from Latin crescere (“to arise, grow”).
Senses: examples: text: There a noble crew / Of Lordes and Ladies stood on every side.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7:
text: Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: A group of people together
Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.
examples: text: If you need help, please contact a member of the crew.
text: He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to some strange exceptional process of decay.
ref: 1905, H. G. Wells, The Empire of the Ants:
text: There's a change of driver halfway at Crianlarich. Glasgow crews bring the 35-year-old Class 156 north, then wait to take over the next train back south. Crews from Mallaig, Oban and Fort William take their trains from the coast to Crianlarich and swap over. There's a tiny rest room on the platform, with a microwave and a sink, while they wait. Some drivers are signed all the way to the city. Most are not.
ref: 2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, pages 37-38:
glosses: A group of people together
A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft.
examples: text: The crews competed to cut the most timber.
glosses: A group of people together
A group of people working together on a task.
examples: text: There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!
text: The crews for different movies would all come down to the bar at night.
topics: art
arts
glosses: A group of people together
The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast.
examples: text: I’d look out for that whole crew down at Jack’s.
glosses: A group of people together
A close group of friends.
examples: text: 1861 William Weston Patton, (version of) John Brown's Body
He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul is marching on.
text: Malignant principles bear fruit in kind and the Revolution did no more than practice what men had been taught by the abandoned crew of philosophers.
ref: 1950, Bernard Nicholas Schilling, Conservative England and the Case Against Voltaire, page 266:
glosses: A group of people together
A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.
glosses: A group of people together
A group of Rovers.
qualifier: scouting
examples: text: And Jay cuts the records every day of the week / And we are the crew that can never be meek
ref: 1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC:
text: The most popular and critically acclaimed rap and deejay “crews”—Run-D.M.C., Whodini, L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys, the Fat Boys, Public Enemy, Full Force, Salt & Pepa, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Mantronix, U.T.F.O., et al.—were spawned on that city's streets.
ref: 1988 February 7, Carly Darling, “L.A.—The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop”, in Los Angeles Times:
text: We decided we needed another rapper in the crew and spent months looking.
ref: 2003, Jennifer Guglielmo, Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White?, →ISBN, page 150:
text: In b-boying culture, a group of b-boys or b-girls who dance and battle together are referred to as a crew.
ref: 2016, Sophy Smith, Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration, Routledge, →ISBN, page 10:
text: […] mutating into all-star line-ups of emcees spitting hot bars over familiar beats, then to a single crew spitting bars over familiar beats, then eventually to a single crew (or artist) spitting bars over unfamiliar beats.
ref: 2021, Jehnie I. Burns, Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation, page 138:
topics: dancing
hip-hop
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A group of people together
A hip-hop or b-boying group.
examples: text: If a crew feather much under water, it is a good plan to seat them in a row on a bench, and give each man a stick to handle as an oar.
ref: 1888, W.B. Woodgate, Boating, page 71:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
rowing
sports
glosses: A group of people together
A rowing team manning a single shell.
examples: text: One crew died in the accident.
glosses: A person in a crew
A member of the crew of a vessel or plant.
examples: text: There were three actors and six crew on the set.
topics: art
arts
glosses: A person in a crew
A worker on a dramatic production who is not part of the cast.
examples: text: The officers and crew assembled on the deck.
text: There are quarters for three officers and five crew.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A person in a crew
A member of a ship's company who is not an officer.
examples: text: The University of Virginia belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and competes interscholastically in basketball, baseball, crew, cross country, fencing, football, golf, indoor track, lacrosse, polo, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling.
ref: 1973, University of Virginia Undergraduate Record:
text: Two Andover classmates, Al Wilson and Al Lindley, both went out for crew in our freshman year at Yale.
ref: 1989, Benjamin Spock, Mary Morgan, Spock on Spock, →ISBN, page 71:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
rowing
sports
glosses: The sport of competitive rowing.
Synonyms: sense: group manning a vessel
word: ship's company
sense: group manning a vessel
word: all hands
sense: group manning a vessel
word: complement
sense: group engaged in a task
word: team
sense: group engaged in a task
word: gang
sense: non-cast dramatic personnel
word: staff
sense: non-cast dramatic personnel
word: stagehands
sense: social group
word: clique
sense: social group
word: gang
sense: social group
word: pack
sense: social group
word: crowd
sense: social group
word: bunch
sense: social group
word: lot
sense: social group
word: posse
sense: group lumped together
word: crowd
sense: group lumped together
word: flock
sense: group lumped together
word: lot
sense: group lumped together
word: gang
sense: hip-hop group
word: posse
sense: hip-hop group
word: band
sense: hip-hop group
word: group
sense: member of a crew
word: crewer
word: member
word: crewmember
word: nautical only: sailor
word: seaman
sense: non-officer ship worker
word: seaman
Hyponyms: cabin crew
commercial crew
film crew
flight crew
ground crew
Jew crew
motley crew
movie crew
pit crew
prize crew
road crew
skeleton crew
train crew
Derived terms: aircrew
air crew
crewable
crew cab
crew chief
crew cut
crewdate
crew date
crewless
crewman
crewmate
crewneck
crew neck
crewperson
crew-served
crew-served weapon
crew sock
crewwoman
cybercrew
groundcrew
handcrew
multicrew
recrew
roadcrew
stage crew
traincrew
youth crew