[Nonce-uses, derived from CRAB sb.1 and 2, or their derivatives.]
† 1. trans. To beat with a crab-stick; to cudgel.
1619. Fletcher, M. Thomas, IV. vi. Get ye to bed, drab, Or I’ll so crab your shoulders.
† 2. ? To catch as a crab does. Obs.
1721. Cibber, Refusal, I. Plays II. 386. I hold six to four now, thou hast been crabb’d at Paris in the Missisippi. Granger. Not I, Faith, Sir; I would no more put my Money into the Stocks there, than my Legs into the Stocks here.
3. Naut. (See quot.)
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Crabbing to it, carrying an overpress of sail in a fresh gale, by which a ship crabs or drifts sideways to leeward.
4. U. S. colloq. (fig.) = CRAWFISH v.
5. Dyeing, etc. To subject to the operation of CRABBING (vbl. sb.3).
1892. Prof. Hummel (in letter), Cloth that has not been crabbed.
6. See CRABBING2.
