crawl

crawl — verb

1. to move forward while your stomach or chest stays near the floor, using your arm

1.動詞不及物A2
釋義

to move forward while your stomach or chest stays near the floor, using your arms and legs to push or pull yourself ahead.

例句

Rafael crawled under the dining table to find his son's lost toy.

crawl + under [object]

The baby crawled across the living room rug toward her grandmother.

同義詞
  • creep

    emphasizes quietness and stealth rather than the position of the body

  • scramble

    suggests faster, less careful movement over rough ground

反義詞
  • walk

    upright movement on feet, much faster than crawling

文法句型

crawl + adverb/preposition (across, under, through, along)

用法筆記

Frequently followed by prepositions showing direction: under, across, through, along, into. The subject may be a person, an animal, or an insect moving close to a surface.

常見錯誤

❌The baby creeped across the floor.
✅The baby crawled across the floor.
💡'creep' means to move quietly and secretly; 'crawl' means on hands and knees.

2. to move or make progress at an extremely slow rate, often because of difficulty

2.動詞不及物B1
釋義

to move or make progress at an extremely slow rate, often because of difficulty or delay.

例句

Traffic crawled along the highway for nearly two hours after the accident.

crawl along [road] describing traffic

The renovation project crawled toward completion after the contractor quit.

同義詞
  • inch

    suggests moving forward by very small amounts at a time

  • drag

    refers to the passage of time or the slow progress of an event

反義詞
  • race

    to move or progress extremely quickly

  • fly

    informal, to pass or move very rapidly

文法句型

crawl + adverb (along, forward, toward)

用法筆記

Subject is typically traffic, a queue, a vehicle, or an abstract process (a project, recovery). Not used when the subject is a person physically on hands and knees — use sense 1 for that.

常見錯誤

❌The queue creeped forward.
✅The queue crawled forward.
💡'crawl' is the standard word for very slow movement of queues and traffic; 'creep' implies stealth.

3. to behave with exaggerated flattery toward a powerful person, as though your onl

3.動詞不及物C1
釋義

to behave with exaggerated flattery toward a powerful person, as though your only reason for being nice is to get something for yourself.

例句

The new salesperson crawled to every senior manager, hoping for a quick promotion.

crawl to [person in authority] for advantage

Shirin refused to crawl to the director just to get a better office.

同義詞
  • grovel

    stronger intensity, suggests humiliating oneself even more deeply

  • toady

    less common as a verb, more often used as a noun describing the person

  • brown-nose

    very informal, more common in American English

反義詞
  • stand up to

    to confront someone in authority rather than flatter them

文法句型

crawl + to + person/group

用法筆記

Strongly negative connotation. The person being crawled to is always someone with greater power or influence. Rarely used without a prepositional phrase starting with 'to'.

常見錯誤

❌He crawled his boss for a raise.
✅He crawled to his boss for a raise.
💡'crawl' is intransitive; it needs 'to' before the person being flattered.

4. to be full of or completely covered by large numbers of small living things or s

4.動詞不及物B2
釋義

to be full of or completely covered by large numbers of small living things or small objects, especially in a way that is surprising or unpleasant.

例句

The old tool shed was crawling with spiders and large centipedes.

be crawling with [creatures]

Aarav's phone screen was crawling with unread notification icons.

同義詞
  • teem with

    more formal, often used for crowds of people or marine life

  • swarm with

    suggests busy movement, often for insects or crowds

文法句型

be crawling with + noun (insects, animals, people, objects)

用法筆記

Almost always used in the continuous form ('was crawling with'). The subject is a place, surface, or container; the noun after 'with' is typically insects, animals, people, or small items in large numbers.

常見錯誤

❌The floor crawls with ants.
✅The floor is crawling with ants.
💡This sense almost always takes the continuous form even for permanent or repeated situations.

5. to cause a strong feeling of fear, disgust, or intense discomfort, as if insects

5.動詞不及物B2
釋義

to cause a strong feeling of fear, disgust, or intense discomfort, as if insects were moving over your body.

例句

The horror film made Sivan's skin crawl from the very first scene.

make [possessive] skin crawl

Just hearing the manager's voice made Ishaan's skin crawl after their argument.

同義詞
  • creep out

    informal, slightly weaker in intensity

  • repel

    focuses more on disgust than fear

文法句型

make + possessive + skin + crawl

用法筆記

Almost always appears in the fixed expression 'make someone's skin crawl'. The cause may be something frightening, disgusting, creepy, or morally repulsive.

常見錯誤

❌The sound crawls my skin.
✅The sound makes my skin crawl.
💡This sense requires the full idiom structure 'make + possessive + skin + crawl'; the verb cannot take a direct object on its own.

6. to automatically visit and read the content of websites or web pages so that the

6.動詞及物 / 不及物C1
釋義

to automatically visit and read the content of websites or web pages so that the information can be recorded and searched later.

例句

Google's search engine crawls billions of web pages every single day.

crawl + [web pages / websites] — computing term

The bot crawled the entire company site and indexed every article.

同義詞
  • index

    focuses on the result (adding to a database) rather than the act of visiting

文法句型

crawl + website/page; crawl through + website

用法筆記

Technical term from information technology. The subject is typically a search engine or an automated software script known as a 'web crawler' or 'spider'. Often used in passive form: 'The site was crawled overnight.'

crawl — noun