crab

noun24

1. •
   a sea animal in a hard case, with five pairs of legs whose front pair ends in two strong claws
2. •
   Various other animals that resemble true crabs.
3. •
   Any of various crustacean in the infraorder Anomura, usually excluding squat lobsters.

   • Despite its name, the hermit crab is not a true crab!
4. •
   A horseshoe crab.
5. •
   The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat.
6. •
   (informal) An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).

   • Although crabs themselves are an easily treated inconvenience, the patient and his partner(s) clearly run major STD risks.
7. •
   (informal) A pubic louse.

   • Pthirus pubis PUBIC LOUSE, aka CRABS — 2023
8. •
   A bad-tempered person.

   • She so obviously enjoyed every second of the concert that only the most stubborn crab could not have been warmed by her charm. — 1983
9. •
   A crab apple or wild apple.

   • I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts — 1610
10. •
    A tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
11. •
    Ellipsis of crab angle.

    • The pilot had to hold fifteen degrees of crab during the approach to keep her plane from getting blown off the localizer course.
12. •
    A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
13. •
    A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
14. •
    A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.
15. •
    (informal) Clipping of carabiner, modified based on likening the shape of a carabiner to a crab's claw.
16. •
    A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
17. •
    (offensive) A member of the Crips.
18. •
    A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
19. •
    A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.
20. •
    A claw for anchoring a portable machine.
21. •
    (slang) A playing card with the rank of three.
22. •
    (old-fashioned) An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.

    • […] unsold copies and settling the yearly accounts; while for the publisher begins the much dreaded season of "crabs," as […] — 1892
23. •
    (Singapore, slang) On an insignia, a coat of arms symbol representing a senior rank.
24. •
    The tree species Carapa guianensis, native to South America.

verb15

1. •
   To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).

   • Mutt stalked forward, matching him, step for step, crabbing sideways the way wolves do when they're going for the kill. — 2000
2. •
   To move (a camera) sideways.

   • If panning is not easy to make seem natural, crabbing the camera is even less like any action we perform with our eyes in the real world. There are a few circumstances in which we walk sideways: […] — 1997
3. •
   To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
4. •
   To complain.

   • “The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.” — 1925
5. •
   To complain about.

   • Well, because of this state of things they crabbed his scheme from the first, ridiculed it, wrote against it, spread broadcast a feeling of distrust. — 2007
6. •
   To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
7. •
   To fish for crabs.
8. •
   To move in a manner that involves keeping low and clinging to surfaces.

   • Time slowed down then, became liquid in the aftermath of his grotesque, unfolding limbs; he crabbed his way down the faded line, rocking back and forth in braces he would use all his life. — 2011
9. •
   (US, slang) To ruin.

   • I thought at the time that that little speech meant a savin' of eight dollars,[…] But the Missus crabbed it a few minutes after her and Bess come in the room. — 1916
10. •
    (rare) To back out of something.
11. •
    To make a loud, rapid rattling sound when scared, stressed, or agitated.
12. •
    (dialect, UK) To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick

    • Get you to bed, drab, courage Or l'll so crab your shoulders! — 1639
13. •
    (no longer used) To fly slightly off the straight-line course towards an enemy aircraft, as the machine guns on early aircraft did not allow firing through the propeller disk.
14. •
    (no longer used) To irritate, make surly or sour
15. •
    (no longer used) To offend or insult.

    • If I think one thing and speak another, / I will both crab Christ and our Ladie His mother.

noun1

1. •
   A unit for measuring the intensity of astrophysical X-ray sources, defined as the intensity of the Crab Nebula at the corresponding X-ray photon energy.