[App. the same as Du., LG., E.Fris. krabben to scratch, claw, f. the same root as CRAB sb.1]
1. Falconry. Of hawks: To scratch, claw, or fight with each other. a. trans. b. intr.
1575. Turberv., Faulconrie, 73. That when your hawkes bate, they maye not reache one another for crabbing. Ibid., 114. Some falcons … will crabbe with every hawke and flee of purpose to crabbe with them.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., ii. (1706), 57. If you mew more than one Hawk in one Room, you must set your Stones at that distance, that when they bate they may not crab one another.
1852. R. F. Burton, Falconry, v. 60. If two [hawks] are flown they are certain to fell the game at once, and the falconer is always flurried by their violent propensity to crab over the ‘pelt.’
1892. Note from Correspt., Two hawks soaring or on the ground will often claw each other, when they are said to ‘crab.’
2. trans. To criticize adversely, cry down, find fault with, ‘peck at,’ ‘pull to pieces.’ slang or stable-talk, whence colloq.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v., To prevent the perfection or execution of any … business, by saying any thing offensive or unpleasant, is called crabbing it.
1862. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XXIII. 385. Owners … will not send their horses to be crabbed and consequently lowered in value because they cannot pass a strict veterinary inspection.
1890. Times, 6 Dec., 12/4. Officers naturally do not care to be frowned upon as men who ‘want to crab the new rifle,’ and their reports are accordingly toned down.
1891. Maude, Merciful Divorce, 76. And you ‘crab’ the girl because she is able to take care of herself.
1892. Blackw. Mag., CLI. 128/2. To crab the complexions or the clothes of the people who occupied the pew in front.
3. ‘To break or bruise. North.’ (Halliwell.)
