Forms: 4 croul, creul, crul, 4–7 craule, crawle, 5–6 crall, 7 craul, 7– crawl. [A rare word in ME. and apparently only northern; prob. from Norse: cf. Da. and Norw. kravle to crawl, climb up, Sw. krafla to grope, Icel. krafla to paw or scrabble with the hands (mod.Icel. krafla fram úr to crawl out of). The word existed also in West Germanic, but the corresponding OE. form *craflian has not been found.
To Norse krafla corresponds an OLG. *kraƀalôn, whence 15th c. HG. krabelen, krabeln to crawl, creep, still used in various HG. dialects, but now replaced in mod.G. by krabbeln (see Kluge. The word is a frequentative from an OTeut. vb. stem *kraƀ-: kreƀ- to scratch, claw, paw: cf. CRAB v.2 and see Grimm krabbeln, kribbeln.
The diphthongal ME. craule, crawle (from cravle), was reduced to crall by end of 15th c., rhyming with small in Spenser: cf. the form-history of AWL. But the phonology of the early forms crewle, creule, croule, crule, is obscure; crewle reminds us of MDu. crēvelen, but croule, crule, suggests some confusion with CROWL, Fr. crouler: see esp. sense 6.]
1. intr. To move slowly in a prone position, by dragging the body along close to the ground, as a child upon its hands and knees, any short-limbed quadruped or reptile, an insect, serpent, worm, slug.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6612 (Cott.). Þai fand bot wormes creuland emid [v.r. Gött. crouland, Fairf. crawlande, Trin. crulyng]. Ibid., 11836 (Cott.). Wormes creuld [Gött. cruled, Fairf. crauled, Tr. cruled] here and þare.
1570. Levins, Manip., 44/1. To craule, repere, serpere.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 22. Serpents small … Which swarming all about his legs did crall.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 201. Spiders … craul under the Rail.
1720. Gay, Poems (1745), I. 100. Slow crawl’d the snail.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, III. xii. The children trotted or crawled towards her.
1877. Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, xiii. 361. We had to crawl into the sanctuary upon our hands and knees.
1890. Besant, Demoniac, i. 21. They spoke of worms, reptiles, and things that crawl.
fig. 1844. Mrs. Browning, Poems, Dead Pan, xxxi. See! the wine crawls in the dust, Worm-like.
† b. trans. To crawl upon or over. Obs. rare.
a. 1641. Suckling, Poems (1646), 48. Snailes there had crawl’d the Hay.
1796. Eliza Parsons, Myst. Warning, I. 150. The veriest wretch that crawls the earth.
2. transf. To walk, go, or move along with a slow and dragging motion.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 155. The aged Symeon cralls to kyrk.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 444. I can no further crawle.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, II. xxv. (1840), 81. The patriarch crawled to Rome, being a hundred years old.
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peake, 25. This Fountain is so very small, Th’ Observer hardly can perceive it crawl Through the sedg.
1798. Southey, Eclogues, v. The poor old woman Told me that she was forced to crawl abroad And pick the hedges.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., VI. xxiv. Mark it as the sunbeams crawl, Inch after inch, along the wall.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, VI. ii. Gloomy vehicles … crawling heavily along.
b. To encroach stealthily upon. rare.
1826. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 241. This forest has been crawled upon, by favourites, and is now much smaller.
3. fig. a. To move or progress very slowly.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. i. 42. While we Vnburthen’d crawle toward death.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 124. Sicknesse posteth to us, but crawleth from us.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xxx. Months and seasons crawled along.
b. To move stealthily, sneakingly or abjectly.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 103. Cranmer … Hath crawl’d into the fauour of the King.
1692. South, 12 Serm. (1697), I. 80 (J.). That numerous litter of strange, sensless, absurd Opinions, that crawl about the world, to the disgrace of Reason.
1805. Scott, Lett. to Miss Seward, in Lockhart xiv. These Gaelic poems … are very unequal … often drivelling and crawling in the very extremity of tenuity.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, iv. Art thou not the veriest slave that e’er Crawled on the loathing earth?
4. Of plants, etc.: To spread over a surface with extending stems or branches; to trail, creep. (rare.)
1634. Milton, Comus, 295. A green mantling vine That crawls along the side of yon small hill.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xv. 38. It hath a little diminutive Nerve … which crawls up and down the Coat of the Liver.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., ii. 57. Passion-flowers, ipomæas, and hibiscus crawled over every wall.
5. transf. To be all ‘alive’ with crawling things.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 204. All my skin cralled with lyce.
1658. S. Richardson, Torments of Hell, in Phenix (1708), II. 435. Dead Bodies … that lie rotting … until they crawl all over with Worms and Maggots.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 127. The whole ground seemed alive, and crawling with unceasing destruction [ants].
1863. J. G. Murphy, Comm. Gen. i. 20. Let the waters crawl with the crawler.
6. To have a sensation as of things crawling over the skin; to feel ‘creepy,’ to ‘creep.’
[The first quot. here may really be from F. crouler ‘to shake, tremble, quiver, quake’ (Cotgr.): see CROWL.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3567 (Cott., Gött.). Quen þat [a man] sua bicums ald … It crepes crouland in his bak [Trin. hit crepeþ crulyng, Fairf. wiþ crepinge croulis].
1881. Grant, Confess. Frivolous Girl, 161. Kissing a ragged infant or two, whose dirtiness positively made me crawl.
1889. Mary E. Wilkins, Far away Melody (1891), 15. You make me crawl all over, talkin’ so much about dyin’.
