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🦀 Catching crabs 😒 Complaining ↔️ Moving sideways
crabbing

crabbing

2 3.2
Catching crabs for food using traps or lines
  • noun
  • /ˈkræbɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : captura de cangrejos
  • The children were excited to go crabbing for the first time, hoping to catch enough for a feast.
  • crabbing season
  • fishing and crabbing
  • closed season for crabbing

But I will say crabbing kind of fun.

Examples

  • Soon she was as much into boating, swimming, tennis, and crabbing.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • "Maybe I'll do some crabbing."

    Fiction book (1993)

  • I stare when I get in and out of our boat after a long day of fishing and crabbing.

    Blog text (3)

  • Ethan would put in a morning of crabbing, taking advantage of the fall season, before heading in to work that afternoon.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • We join the Jester crabbing crew in the off-season.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • I supported myself crabbing, gill netting, and tonging oysters during winter.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • For many of the people there, fishing in the Pamlico Sound or crabbing in the Neuse River was a way of life, and boats were moored wherever you saw the Intracoastal Waterway.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • On weekends, we enjoy crabbing along the shore, catching fresh crabs for dinner.

  • During the summer, crabbing is a popular activity in the coastal towns, attracting many visitors.

Surface Forms

crabbing singular
crabbings plural

Morphology

crabbing = crab (transparent) = crab + ing

A standard nominalization of the verb 'crab' in the sense 'to catch crabs'; the activity noun is directly derived from the verb.

Etymology

Crabbing simply comes from the animal crab and means 'catching crabs', just like 'fishing' is for fish. Because people named the activity after the animal, crabbing is the word for going out to catch crabs.