Synonyms of crawled

crawled

verb

past tense of crawl

1

as in crept

to move slowly with the body close to the ground

the time we had to crawl through a narrow passageway from one cave to another

Synonyms & Similar Words

• crept
• slid
• snaked
• slithered
• tiptoed
• wriggled
• crouched
• sneaked
• squatted
• wormed
• groveled
• bellied
• inched
• stole
• edged
• nosed
• skulked

2

as in dragged

to move slowly

the weekend traffic on the road to the beach just crawled

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dragged
• crept
• shuffled
• poked
• slouched
• inched
• limped
• oozed
• creaked (along)
• plodded
• nosed
• snailed
• trudged
• shambled
• tramped
• lumbered

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• flew
• raced
• sped
• sailed
• floated
• hurried
• whizzed
• zipped
• tore
• glided

3

as in lingered

to move or act slowly

the deadline is fast approaching, so this is no time to crawl

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dragged
• lingered
• delayed
• poked
• strolled
• crept
• shuffled
• loitered
• played
• lagged
• dawdled
• fell behind
• stalled
• dropped behind
• diddled
• moped
• lollygagged
• hung fire
• lounged
• staggered
• marked time
• tarried
• sauntered
• dallied
• dragged one's feet
• idled
• dillydallied
• took one's time
• ambled
• inched
• shilly-shallied
• loafed
• trifled
• puttered (around)
• fiddled (around)
• lolled
• pottered (around)
• plodded
• decelerated
• fooled around
• eased
• hung (around or out)
• lumbered
• messed around
• slowed (down or up)
• monkeyed (around)
• temporized
• procrastinated
• filibustered

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• flew
• sped
• rushed
• scurried
• ran
• hurried
• raced
• ripped
• scooted
• bolted
• hastened
• tore
• whirled
• dashed
• whizzed
• zipped
• whisked
• scrambled
• rocketed
• darted
• scudded
• coursed
• barreled
• hustled
• hurtled
• humped
• ran
• stampeded
• trotted
• bowled
• breezed
• sprinted
• galloped
• jogged
• careered
• accelerated
• quickened
• hotfooted (it)
• sped (up)
• overtook
• caught up
• outpaced
• outstripped
• outran
• fast-forwarded

4

as in buzzed

to be copiously supplied

something must be up, as city hall is crawling with reporters

Synonyms & Similar Words

• buzzed
• burst
• hummed
• bulged
• swarmed
• brimmed
• abounded
• teemed
• bustled
• overflowed
• bristled
• pullulated

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• needed
• wanted
• lacked

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of crawled

In May 2025, after Williams shut off the water in a cell, 10 inmates removed a toilet, crawled through a gap in the wall and scaled a fence out of the jail. — ABC News, 15 Oct. 2026

In real-world tests, the hand crawled across 14 different surfaces including smooth floors, metal grates, grass, and gravel. — Edd Gent, IEEE Spectrum, 8 Oct. 2026

OpenAI’s agents also crawled millions of pages and made thousands of data queries, which may have led to the partial outage of the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) in May, the post adds. — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 6 Oct. 2026

The Rams led the Broncos 16-0 at halftime until some of the ghosts that haunted them against the Eagles last season crawled out from under the bed. — Nate Atkins, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2026

In a historic first, two olive ridley sea turtles crawled out of the sea within the second week of September and laid their eggs in pits of sand in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. — Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026

The technology isn’t perfect, Walsh said; if Gus had crawled beneath a bush to sleep, the camera wouldn’t necessarily find him. — Hilary Whiteman, CNN Money, 20 Sep. 2026

Every window of every building the bus crawled past opened a severe yearning in me, as though my life here had become abstract or theoretical. — Hisham Matar, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2026

Each tool sharpened one department, and the work still crawled between them, because nobody was ever asked to own the crawling. — Krupesh Bhat, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2026