crabbing

verb

present participle of crab
1
as in complaining
to express dissatisfaction, pain, or resentment usually tiresomely their two-year-old whined and crabbed for the whole car trip

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in damaging
to reduce the soundness, effectiveness, or perfection of crabbed the blossoming romance by becoming moody and demanding

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of crabbing From crabbing in the Ashley River with a local expert to learning how to cook from bestselling author and chef Rick Martínez, there’s plenty to look forward to—and Travel + Leisure editors know firsthand. — Jess Feldman, Travel + Leisure, 14 Sep. 2026 Getting a crabbing license isn't easy, and Maryland limits the number to around 5,400 each year to protect the Chesapeake Bay's crab population, which declined between 2011 and 2023. — Brittney Melton, NPR, 14 Aug. 2026 This is a wonderful time to enjoy the great outdoors — surfing and crabbing come to mind. — Ed Silverman, STAT, 17 July 2026 Northside Park, a 58-acre complex that includes pickleball courts, soccer fields, walking and biking trails, and a fishing and crabbing pier, is an ideal spot to stay active. — Katie Riley, Southern Living, 15 July 2026 Members gather on local piers to learn crabbing techniques, understand regulations and try their luck at bringing home fresh seafood. — Loureen Ayyoub, CBS News, 22 June 2026 As the crabbing season gains momentum, Maryland watermen are grappling with a surge in operational expenses, led by high fuel prices that are forcing them to pass rising costs on to consumers. — Tessa Bentulan, Baltimore Sun, 9 June 2026 The Broncos chose to be strategic, their offseason a laser, not a crabbing net. — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 25 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for crabbing
  1. complaining
  2. damaging
  3. screaming
  4. marring
  5. whining
  6. injuring
  7. moaning
  8. hurting
Verb
  • By July, morale among immigration officers had dipped below its nadir during the Biden Administration, with agents now complaining of being overextended, inundated with novice recruits, and undermined by inflammatory rhetoric from on high.
    — Francisco Cantú, New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Some 35,000 plaintiffs were compensated after complaining of personal injury and property damage to their homes.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of complaining
Verb
  • Insects like ants and termites that might be drawn to a tempting tree stump can multiply and affect an entire property, potentially damaging healthy plant life directly and/or by spreading fungi or pathogens to nearby trees and plants.
    — Steven John, Architectural Digest, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Nationwide, vandals have filmed themselves on social media damaging or defacing Flock cameras.
    — Libor Jany, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of damaging
Verb
  • Young and the Panthers couldn’t capitalize on the iconic opportunity, though, and ultimately fell to the screaming green-and-gold parishioners, 27-19.
    — Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 30 Oct. 2026
  • Still, the very idea of such a thing freezes my brain, locking it into a mental feedback loop that’s the equivalent of running around in a tight circle flapping my arms wildly and screaming.
    — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of screaming
Verb
  • The Trib is withholding Nick’s full name to avoid marring his reputation in the eyes of future employers or others who might run a search on him.
    — Kate Payne, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The latter track takes overt inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, as Jepsen beckons her love to engage in life’s vices with her, like marring bedsheets with fruit stains and dashing nude through the garden.
    — Jaeden Pinder, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of marring
Verb
  • Just thank God you were born female and stop whining over your bad choices.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 2 Nov. 2026
  • While the left spent all week whining about Sophie Cunningham's hat and firing squad best practices, us PATRIOTS were biding our time, keeping our heads down, and grinding towards another weekend.
    — Zach Dean OutKick, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of whining
Verb
  • In Paris, rioters targeted police with Molotov cocktails at the end of Saturday’s march on the city’s eastern edge, injuring three officers and setting a car ablaze, police said.
    — Angela Charlton, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2026
  • Several days later, a commuter train near Barcelona derailed, killing the driver and injuring dozens of other people.
    — Hernan Muñoz, NBC news, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of injuring
Verb
  • It's been a big few months for Austin Abrams moaning and groaning his way through some of the worst situations imaginable.
    — Megan McCluskey, Time, 16 Oct. 2026
  • For a cold moment the silence locked a grip on our table, though it was broken, at the edges, by the golf commentators moaning and harrumphing, Rory McIlroy having had a canary on a seventeenth fairway somewhere this championship Sunday.
    — Kevin Barry, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of moaning
Verb
  • The express trains would skip local stops in most communities, offering zero service to residents along the rail line while potentially hurting state and federal funding for existing systems such as the CTA and Metra that serve actual commuters.
    — Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Google's problem is that chatbots are becoming an alternative to search, leading consumers to click far fewer blue links and hurting Google's ad revenue.
    — Ari Levy, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of hurting

Browse Nearby Words

crabbedness
crabbing
crabby
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Cite this Entry

“Crabbing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/crabbing. Accessed 4 Nov. 2026.

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