to crawl

Examples

• All

• Oh God, whoa, my skin crawled when she did that.

• This attitude to anything foreign makes my flesh crawl.

  Visions of Europe (2004)

• What makes you, what makes your skin crawl when you think about him?

• What is it that makes your flesh crawl about this guy?

• Feels like something's crawling under your skin.

  Late Night with the Devil (2024)

• Makes my skin crawl.

  Tremors (1990)

• Suddenly you realize there's a wasp crawling on your arm.

  Blade Runner (1982)

• His eyes filled with terror, beads of sweat crawling on his brow.

  Fiction book (1991)

• Tess looks back just as the darkness takes shape, crawling, wriggling under the runway fence, toward her.

  Fiction book (1993)

• Feeling like you're crawling out of your skin in a social setting for which the only remedy is to leave immediately and tear out your hair extensions?

Idioms

C

to crawl before you walk

1 5.0

To start with simple tasks before trying harder ones

M

to make someone's skin crawl

• Informal

7.4

Cause a strong feeling of fear or disgust with a creepy physical feeling

Phrasal Verbs

C

to crawl with

42 5.1

To be full of many animals or people, often in an unpleasant way

C

to crawl in

• Informal

3 3.3

To go to bed slowly because you feel very tired

C

to crawl over each other

1 3.4

Move over each other on hands and knees, often playfully

B

to begin to crawl

1 2.8

Start to move or make progress very slowly after being faster

P

to pub-crawl

• Informal

7.4

To visit several pubs in one night, drinking at each one

Compounds

C

crawl space

• Specialized

15 5.7

A low narrow space under the main floor of a building that people use to reach pipes and wires

P

pub crawl

• Informal

4 6.8

A group visiting several pubs or bars and having a drink at each

F

front crawl

1 3.7

A swimming stroke done face down where arms move alternately over the water and legs kick

A

Australian crawl

• Specialized

1 4.6

A swimming stroke where the arms move one after the other above the water and the legs kick fast

T

turtle-crawl approach

• Informal

8.2

A very slow way of doing something that wastes time

How Uncomfortable

to crawl

55 6.4

to shudder

85 3.7

to prickle

4 4.0

tingle

26 3.3

Surface Forms

Etymology