Word: crab Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“to scratch”), a metathesised o-grade of *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). 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. Other origins have also been suggested, see Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos) (regarding the possibility of a substrate origin) and Persian خرچنگ (regarding possible ideophonic origin); compare also Old Armenian քարբ (kʻarb), German Krebs. Pronunciation: /kɹæb/, /ˈkɹab/, /ˈkɾab/, /ˈkɻab/, /ˈkɹɛb/ 1. To fish for crabs. Labels: intransitive 2. To ruin. Labels: US, slang, transitive Example: 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. Example: ‘Just so we understand each other,’ he said after a pause. ‘If you crab this case, you'll be in a jam.’ 3. To complain. Labels: intransitive Example: “The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.” Example: And if we do have to walk, I don't want to have to listen to you crabbing at me, Tad Trenton. 4. To complain about. Labels: transitive Example: 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. 5. To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab). Labels: intransitive Example: Mutt stalked forward, matching him, step for step, crabbing sideways the way wolves do when they're going for the kill. Example: The aircraft crabbed sideways in the cross-winds and leveled to horizontal. 6. To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces. Example: 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. Example: 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. 7. To move (a camera) sideways. Labels: transitive Example: 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: […] 8. To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course. Labels: transitive 9. 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. Labels: World-War-I, obsolete 10. To back out of something. Labels: rare Example: “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. 11. To make a loud, rapid rattling sound when scared, stressed, or agitated.