plural crawlers
1
: someone or something that crawls: such as
a
: a small organism (such as an insect or worm) that typically moves along close to or on the ground
He won $600 last year for eating a worm. … He devoured the crawler in Yakult, Japan. …—Janine Zuniga Irvine
That's when he [Cam Lyons] remembered hearing about dogs that are trained to sniff for bedbugs. If a dog could hunt and find those tiny crawlers, he thought, why not weevils?—Ron Charles
see also creepy crawler, night crawler
b
informal + often humorous
: a young child
especially
: a young child that crawls but does not yet walk
Attention moms, dads, grandparents, uncles and aunts. Sign up your little crawler and toddler for the annual Corn Fest Diaper Derby-Toddler Trot … —The Midweek (Sycamore, Illinois)
Knee pads for babies! … the embroidered patella buffers … are designed to keep your little crawler boo-boo free. —Jill Radsken
c
: someone who participates in crawls (see crawl entry 2 sense 1d)
Each pub crawler will receive a free hot toddy in a … mug.—Susan Sprague Yeske
Just a few quick steps away on Fourth Avenue, the Dream Hotel and the Bobby Hotel have added art exhibits for art crawlers to enjoy.—Janet Kurtz
2
: a vehicle (such as a crane) that travels on endless (see endless sense 3) chain belts
… a crawler crane and other equipment were used while the tower crane was out of commission.—Chase Rogers
For more than 40 years, the twin crawler-transporters at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have traveled the gravel track between the massive Vehicle Assembly Building and the two launch pads at Launch Complex 39.—Cheryl L. Mansfield
3
: software that automatically visits and indexes websites for future search engine or database queries
Publishers usually have a small amount of traffic coming from search engine crawlers …—Augustine Fou
see also web crawler
Cite this Entry
“Crawler.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crawler. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.
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