crawls 1 of 2

present tense third-person singular of crawl
1
as in creeps
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

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2
3
4
as in bursts
to be copiously supplied something must be up, as city hall is crawling with reporters

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

crawls

2 of 2

noun

plural of crawl

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 crawls
Verb
Seltz’s system crawls hundreds of millions of pages a day, and returns results in under 200 milliseconds. Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 24 June 2026 At sunset, the city starts glowing around you while traffic crawls silently below. Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 28 May 2026 Critics on the Croisette are starting to resemble that classic comic-strip panel in which an explorer crawls desperately across the sand toward an oasis that’s only a mirage. Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2026 Walking between Valmiermuiža, Labietis, Taka, and Nurme makes for one of the easiest and most enjoyable beer crawls in Europe. Jim Dobson, Forbes.com, 16 May 2026 Leclerc crawls through the long right-hand Turn 12, where Lindblad moves ahead again. Alex Kalinauckas, New York Times, 11 May 2026 Think about how often your toddler crawls near the dog bed or your kids toss pet toys around the living room. Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Apr. 2026 In the book, Grace drags Rocky back to his part of the ship, exposing himself to the Eridian environment; in the film, Rocky crawls back while Grace is unconscious. Matthew Razak, Space.com, 23 Mar. 2026 On Polymarket’s tab for Bitcoin, a line graph crawls along like a seismograph, showing the price to beat as the total cost fluctuates by hundreds of dollars a second. Joe Wilkins Published Mar 18, Futurism, 18 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for crawls
Verb
  • Misalignment creeps in simply because a high volume of choices are handed off to local leaders operating under distinct market pressures.
    Peter Ross, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
  • As our conversation extends into the hour mark, her hood creeps upward along the side of her face most visible to those around us.
    José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 23 June 2026
Verb
  • There’s a sense that Kaprizov depends too much on Zuccarello and that Zuccarello drags Kaprizov into the east-west game that’s the opposite of how the Wild want to play.
    Michael Russo, New York Times, 24 June 2026
  • As the search drags on, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday commended police for their efforts after weeks of shooting incidents brought international attention to the city’s gun violence problem as thousands of soccer fans visit for the FIFA World Cup.
    Dylan Lysen, Kansas City Star, 24 June 2026
Verb
  • The math turns against you the moment a balance lingers, though.
    Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 29 June 2026
  • The sisters have reportedly made efforts to remain active within the royal family, but a sense of distance lingers.
    Allison DeGrushe, StyleCaster, 25 June 2026
Verb
  • Things quickly take a terrifying turn during surgery when a scorpion tail suddenly bursts through Perry’s back, attacking one of the surgeons mid-operation.
    Lily Brown, PEOPLE, 26 June 2026
  • Haaland bursts our bubble almost immediately by scoring in the opening five minutes, and Burnley miss a few good first-half chances, with striker Zian Flemming particularly culpable.
    Nnamdi Onyeagwara, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Earlier, near the Simon Bolivar International Airport — an area also heavily impacted by the quakes — residents complained of delays in resuming rescue operations.
    Osmary Hernández, CNN Money, 27 June 2026
  • Be punctual for shore excursions and activities to avoid delays or missing out without a refund.
    Jill Schildhouse, Southern Living, 27 June 2026
Verb
  • When a Knicks game lets out at the Garden or concertgoers from the Meadowlands pour out of Penn Station, crowds pack the Tick Tock’s orange-and-green banquettes and the line snakes out the door.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
  • The River Caqueta snakes nearly 1,800 miles into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
    Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 27 May 2026
Verb
  • At the sound of morning prayers, an older Clarissa awakens from this dream and shuffles out to her lawn, where the leafy bush has been replaced with the industrial skyline of Lagos.
    Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026
  • Tristan returns home and greets James while Siegfried shuffles the woman out the window.
    Alice Burton, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2026
Verb
  • The second is a vent which pokes out above your clothes, to move warm air away from you.
    David Phelan, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
  • Perched on a finger of land that pokes into Lebanon, Metula is usually crowded with tourists this time of year.
    Tal Shalev, CNN Money, 23 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Crawls.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/crawls. Accessed 2 Jul. 2026.

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