crawl
4
4.7
- noun
- /krɔl/
- Specialized
:
crol
- I promised them I'd teach him the crawl and maybe even the side stroke next summer.
- front crawl
- crawl stroke
- swim the crawl
Examples
-
I could put my hands down and touch the muck or kick it if I swam the crawl, but that terrified me further.
Fiction book (1991) -
She is swimming the 28-beat American crawl.
-
I went down to the lake and dove in, and I began to swim a long, slow, easy crawl across the length of the water.
Fiction book (1996) -
I settle into the water and begin swimming the crawl, my arms pointing through the sea and the riffly surface just washing past my face.
Fiction book (2000) -
Trudy Ederle is in the water swimming the American crawl.
-
Then he started swimming, covering the distance toward the bobbing head he'd glimpsed so faintly with a powerful crawl stroke.
Fiction book (1996) -
Rose's voice penetrates the silence inside my cap: "Everybody out!" She completes her constitutional, a water-churning crawl to the raft and back, and comes shivering up on the beach like a reeled-in fish.
Fiction book (1990) -
After the lesson, the instructor explained how to perform the crawl correctly during the swimming competition.
-
Many swimmers prefer the crawl because it allows them to move quickly through the water.
-
In competitive swimming, mastering the crawl can significantly improve a swimmer's overall speed.
Synonyms
1
3.7
A swimming stroke done face down where arms move alternately over the water and legs kick
1
4.6
A swimming stroke where the arms move one after the other above the water and the legs kick fast
Idioms
- Informal
Cause a strong feeling of fear or disgust with a creepy physical feeling
Compounds
- Specialized
15
5.7
A low narrow space under the main floor of a building that people use to reach pipes and wires
1
3.7
A swimming stroke done face down where arms move alternately over the water and legs kick
- Specialized
1
4.6
A swimming stroke where the arms move one after the other above the water and the legs kick fast
How Fast
Surface Forms
Etymology
The swimming crawl was named because the arm action looks a little like the arms of a person crawling, so the crawl is the fast stroke where the arms move alternately over the water.