Main Entry: ¹crab

Pronunciation: \ˈkrab\

Function: noun

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba; akin to Old High German krebiz crab and perhaps to Old English ceorfan to carve — more at carve

Date: before 12th century

1 plural crabs also crab : any of numerous chiefly marine broadly built decapod crustaceans: a : any of an infraorder (Brachyura) with a short broad usually flattened carapace, a small abdomen that curls forward beneath the body, short antennae, and the anterior pair of limbs modified as grasping pincers b : any of various crustaceans of an infraorder (Anomura) resembling true crabs in the more or less reduced condition of the abdomen
2 capitalized : cancer 1
3 plural : infestation with crab lice
4 : the angular difference between an aircraft's course and the heading necessary to make that course in the presence of a crosswind