Forms: 1 crabba, pl. -an, 2–6 crabbe, 2–3 pl. -en, (5 crabe), 5– crab. [OE. crabba = ON. krabbi masc., MLG. krabbe, MDu. crabbe, Du. krabbe, krab, fem. (Thence F. crabe 13th c., in 16th c. also crabbe). Allied etymologically to MLG. krēvet, MDu. creeft, Du. kreeft:—OLG. type *kreƀit, *kreƀato, OHG. chrebiȥ, chrebaȥo, MHG. kreb(e)ȥ, kreb(e)ȥe, Ger. krebs (whence F. écrevisse, Eng. CRAYFISH). (In no way related to L. carabus, Gr. κάραβος, but to LG. krabben to scratch, claw: see CRAB v.2 and CRAWL.)]
1. The common name for decapod crustaceous animals of the tribe Brachyura; applied especially to the edible species found on or near the sea coast in most regions of the world. Also with qualifications applied to other Crustacea and Arachnida which more or less resemble these.
The common edible crab of Britain and Europe is Cancer pagurus; the small green, or shore crab is Carcinus Mænas; the edible or blue crab of the United States is Callinectes hastatus. Other genera of Brachyura are known as box-crab, calling-crab, fiddler-crab, lady-crab, land-crab, pea-crab, porcelain-crab, rock-crab, sand-crab, spider-crab, stone-crab, swimming-crab, etc. Black crab, a land-crab of the Antilles, Gecarcinus ruricola, so called from the marking of its carapace. The hermit-crab, palm-crab, soldier-crab, tree-crab, belong to the tribe Anomoura, The horse-shoe-, Molucca-, or king-crab is classed among the Arachnida. Glass-crabs are young transparent crustaceans of the families Palinuridæ and Scyllaridæ. Crabs can move in any direction, and frequently walk sideways or backwards, to which characteristic frequent reference is made in language: cf. crab-like, crab-sidle, also CRADDED.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Colloquy, in Wr.-Wülcker, 94. Hwæt fehst ðu on sæ?… ostran and crabban.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 51. Crabbe is an manere of fissce in þere sea.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 4943. After crabben and airen hy skippen and lepeth.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 600. Breke þe clawes of þe crabbe, þe smalle & þe grete.
1483. Cath. Angl., 79. A Crab, piscis est.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 77 b. One Crab blames another for her backwarde pace, And yet the blamer can none other do.
1579. T. Stevens, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 162. We sawe crabs swimming on the water that were red as though they had been sodden.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 205. You your selfe Sir, should be old as I am, if like a Crab you could go backward.
1674. Ray, Collect. Wds., Fishes, 105. Spanish Crab … Cancer maias. Besides all these we observed two other sorts of small Crabs.
1779. P. Browne, Nat. Hist. Jamaica, 423. Cancer Ruricolus … The Black or Mountain-Crab. These creatures are very numerous in some parts of Jamaica.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 318. They run swiftly, and frequently retrograde or move sideways like Crabs.
1855. Kingsley, Glaucus (1878), 76. The soldier crab is the most hasty and blundering of marine animals.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., vi. 262. The King Crabs are a very peculiar family of Crustaceans.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 215. Black crabs abound in the Palisades, and are very fierce.
2. Astron. A zodiacal constellation, lying between Gemini and Leo. Also the fourth of the twelve divisions of the Zodiac, which originally coincided with the constellation; = CANCER 2.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 244. An þæra tacna ys ʓehaten aries þæt is ramm … Feorða cancer þæt is crabba.
1413. Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, V. xiii. (1483), 104. The sonne entred the signe of Cancer which is cleped the Crabbe.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., I. i. When Phebus entred was in Geminy … And horned Dyane then but one degre In the Crabbe had entred.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., C ij b. Mars loaths the crab, he’s in the lions den.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 675. Up to the Tropic Crab.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, 95. I have restrained the rage of the dog-star and mitigated the fervours of the crab.
1860. Lockyer, Heavens (ed. 3), 372. The next group is situated in the Crab, and is known by the name of Præsepe.
b. Name of a nebula or star-cluster in Taurus.
1868. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., 30. The Dumb-Bell cluster in Vulpecula and the Crab cluster in Taurus … have been resolved into Stars.
1890. C. A. Young, Uranography, § 23. The so-called ‘Crab Nebula.’
† 3. A malignant growth; = CANCER 3. rare.
1614. W. B., Philosopher’s Banquet (ed. 2), 1. The Crabbe, the Gangrene, or the Stone.
4. Short for CRAB-LOUSE.
1840. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 488. The … crabs or crab-lice, form Dr. Leach’s genus Phtheirius.
5. Angling. The larva of the Stone-fly.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, vii. (1880), 266. The crab or creeper is the larva of the stone fly.
† 6. An arch. [rare, only transl. med.L. cancer in same sense.]
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 221 (Mätzn.). Þis work is isett upon sixe crabbes [super sex cancros] of hard marbilston.
7. A machine or apparatus for hoisting or hauling heavy weights: the name being orig. applied to a machine with claws, and transferred to others of like use. a. A kind of small capstan (see quot. 1764); a portable capstan. † b. A three-legged frame with tackle for raising heavy weights; a gin. Obs. c. A portable machine for raising weights, etc., consisting of a frame with a horizontal barrel on which a chain or rope is wound by means of handles and gearing; used in connection with pulleys, a gin, etc.: a portable winch.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., i. 2. A crab … is an engine of wood of three clawes, placed on the ground in the nature of a Capsterne, for the lanching of ships.
1631. E. Pelham, God’s Power & Prov., in Collect. Voy. (Church.), IV. 815/1. A Halser thereupon we got, which fastning unto our Shallops, we with a Crabb or Capstang, by main force of Hand heaved them out of the Water upon the Shoar.
1739. Labelye, Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge, 36. The Masons placed their Crab or Engine, with which they hoisted their Stone.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Crab or Gin … an engine used for mounting guns on their carriages. It is made of three pieces of oak, ash, or other strong wood, of about 14 feet long, two of which are joined by transomes; so that they are wide asunder at bottom, and join at top, on a strong piece of wood…. The third piece of the crab is round; one end of it goes into the head, and the other stands on the ground; so that all three make a triangle called the pye.
1764. Croker, etc. Dict. Arts & Sc., s.v. Crab … This machine differs from a capstern in having no drum-head, and in having the bars to go entirely through it, and reach from one side of the deck to the other.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 220. Hauled the vessel upon the dry land, by means of a crab, or small capstan.
1851. Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 18. Crab, a species of capstan, worked usually by horses, for the purpose of raising or lowering heavy weights, such as pumps, spears, &c., in a shaft.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 402. Brooks has rigged a crab or capstan on the floe.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, II. 221. On the truck were placed two powerful double-purchase crabs or windlasses.
8. ‘An iron trivet to set over a fire, Cheshire’ (Halliw.).
¶ A cross ill-conditioned person: see CRAB sb.2 6.
9. pl. slang. The lowest throw at hazard, two aces. To come off, turn out crabs: to turn out a failure or disappointment. [This may belong to CRAB sb.2]
1768. Ld. Carlisle, in Jesse, G. Selwyn (1882), II. 238 (Farmer). If you … will play, the best thing I can wish you is, that you may win and never throw crabs.
1777. [T. Swift], Gamblers, 7. Then Hazard rose, and Crabs and Doctors sprung.
1801. Sporting Mag., XVII. 7. Dreamt that I had thrown crabs all night, and could not nick seven for the life of me.
1861. Whyte-Melville, Tilbury Nogo, 51. My next neighbour … called for fresh dice, and selected two of them with the utmost care only to throw ‘crabs.’
1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, iii. (Farmer). My annuity drops with me; and if this throw comes off crabs, there won’t be enough to bury me, unless I die a defaulter.
10. Rowing. To catch (rarely cut) a crab: to make a faulty stroke in rowing whereby the oar becomes jammed under water. The resistance of the water against the blade drives the handle against the rower’s body with sufficient force (if the boat be in rapid motion) to throw him back out of his seat, and to endanger the capsizing of the boat.
The phrase prob. originated in the humorous suggestion that the rower had caught a crab, which was holding his oar down under water; it does not appear to have any historical connection with the It. pigliare un granchio ‘to catch a crab,’ to make a big blunder or complete mistake, ‘toto cælo errare’; all the quots. given by Manuzzi for this phrase are fig., of conduct, action, etc., e.g., In nessun’ altra cosa l’uom più erra, piglia piu granchi, e fa maggior marroni, che nella cosa della guerra’ (i.e., In no other thing does man err more, catch more crabs, and make greater blunders [lit. spades], than in the matter of war).
The phrase is not uncommonly applied, from similarity of result, to the action of missing the water with the stroke, or to any other action which causes the rower to fall backward; but this (though found in Dictionaries from Grose onward) is an improper use by the uninitiated.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Crab, To catch a crab, to fall backwards by missing one’s stroke in rowing.
1804. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 262. Catching crabs, that is, missing the hold they intend to take of the water with their oar.
1806. Specif. C. Wilson’s Patent No. 2964. 4. It will clear itself of the water, so as the most inexperienced man can never what is technically called catch a crab, or impede the boat’s motion by a resistance against the water in rowing.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., i. (1889), 9. I have been down the river … with some other freshmen … though we bungle and cut crabs desperately at present.
1862. Nares, Seamanship (1882), 151. Q. When laying on your oars under sail, what should be done with them? A. Always fling them out of the rowlocks, and let them rest abaft in the gunwale. If they are left in the rowlocks, and … the loom of the oar were not kept … down, it would ‘catch a crab.’
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Catch a crab, in rowing, when an oar gets so far beneath the surface of the water, that the rower cannot recover it in time to prevent his being knocked backwards.
1880. Times, 27 Sept., 11/3. A boat being upset simply because one of the rowers caught a ‘crab.’
11. attrib. and Comb., as crab-computing, -eating, -fishing, -gauge, -racing, -trap; (sense 7) crab-capstan, -engine, -winch, -windlass; crab-claw, a claw or clutch for grappling or fastening; † crab face, an ugly ill-tempered looking face (cf. Sc. partan face, used by the fisher folk: in later use app. associated with CRAB sb.2, cf. crab-tree faced, sour-faced); so crab-faced, crab-favoured; crab-farming, raising crabs in enclosed shallows for the market; crab-lobster, the porcelain-crab, an anomourous crustacean; crab-pot, a trap for crabs, a basket or frame of wicker-work so constructed that crabs can readily enter but cannot get out again; crab rock (see quot.); crab-roller (Printing), a term for the distributing roller, so called from its diagonal motion; crab’s claw, (a) the claw of crabs, formerly used in medicine for the same purpose as CRAB’S-EYES; (b) a water-plant, Water Soldier, Stratiotes Aloides; crab-shell, the carapace of a crab; slang a shoe; crab-snouted (see crab-faced); crab-spider, the name of several species of spiders; crab-step, a sidelong step by a capering horse; crab-stone, a calcareous concretion found in the stomach of crustaceans, previous to the casting of their shells; in crayfish it forms the crab’s-eyes.
1694. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 107. And instead of Anchors, they have wooden *Crab-claws, or Kellocks.
1780. Cowper, Error, 487. E’en Leeuwenhoek himself would stand aghast … And own his *crab-computing powers o’ercome.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 309. The *Crab-eating Opossum is common in Guiana and Brazil, it … prefers marshy situations, where it feeds on crabs.
1838. F. W. Simms, Public Wks. Gt. Brit., ii. 22. An ordinary *crab engine was employed in driving the piles.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, V. 331. Viewing his *crab Face.
1563. A. Nevyll, in B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 22. Such *crab-faced, cankerd, carlish chuffs.
1648. Gage, West Ind., v. (1655), 14. An old crab-fac’d English Fryer.
1596. Harington, Metam. Ajax, Pref. (1814), 9. Being invited by a *crab-favoured host to a neat house.
1888. Times, 3 Jan., 10/2. It is much to be regretted that lobster and *crab fishing is not carried on with more enterprise, as there is an abundant supply along the Irish coasts.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., p. lxxxiii. Patented aquaria … and *crab and lobster guages.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 264. They … disengaged the layers of cork … and cut them to pieces for their *Crab-pots and Seines.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., I. viii. (ed. 2), 180. The rope made from it is especially valuable for crab pots.
1882. Society, 7 Oct., 5/1. One of the latest forms of amusement at French and Belgian seaside resorts is *‘crab-racing.’
1877. A. H. Green, Phys. Geol., iv. § 4. *Crab Rock, local name of brecciated Permian rocks of Cumberland and Westmoreland.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 30. Take Powder of *Crabs-claws compound … half a scruple.
1758. [R. Dossie], Elaboratory laid open, 363–4. Crabs claws are. for the most part, sold or used, where crabs eyes are demanded or ordered.
1563. A. Nevyll, in B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 21. Those *crabsnowted bestes, Those ragyng feends of hell.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. V. ii. 260. The Mygales (*Crab Spiders and Mason Spiders). Ibid., II. III. iii. 97. The *Crabs’ Stones which are most esteemed come from Astrakan.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 7. *Crab and Lobster Trap.
1877. Daily News, 10 Oct., 6/2. The upper bolts of chain sheaves, *crab winch, &c., had leaked a little at first.
