crawl

1. The act of moving slowly on hands and knees etc, or with frequent stops.
2. A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick.
3. A very slow pace.

   My computer has slowed down to a crawl since I installed that software package.

4. A piece of horizontally or vertically scrolling text overlaid on the main image.

1. To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.

   Clutching my wounded side, I crawled back to the trench.

2. To move forward slowly, with frequent stops.

   The rush-hour traffic crawled around the bypass.

3. To act in a servile manner.

   Don't come crawling to me with your useless apologies!

4. (with "with") See crawl with.
5. To feel a swarming sensation.

   The horrible sight made my skin crawl.

6. To swim using the crawl stroke.

   I think I'll crawl the next hundred metres.

7. To move over an area on hands and knees.

   The baby crawled the entire second floor.

8. To visit while becoming inebriated.

   They crawled the downtown bars.

9. To visit files or web sites in order to index them for searching.

   Yahoo Search has updated its Slurp Crawler to crawl web sites faster and more efficiently.

noun

A pen or enclosure of stakes and hurdles for holding fish.