crab

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

crab, n. [AS. crabba; akin to D. krab, G. krabbe, krebs, Icel. krabbi, Sw. krabba, Dan. krabbe, and perh. to E. cramp. Cf. Crawfish.].

•  One of the brachyuran Crustacea. They are mostly marine, and usually have a broad, short body, covered with a strong shell or carapace. The abdomen is small and curled up beneath the body.  [1913 Webster]

  " The name is applied to all the Brachyura, and to certain Anomura, as the hermit crabs. Formerly, it was sometimes applied to Crustacea in general. Many species are edible, the blue crab of the Atlantic coast being one of the most esteemed. The large European edible crab is Cancer padurus. Soft-shelled crabs are blue crabs that have recently cast their shells. See Cancer; also, Box crab, Fiddler crab, Hermit crab, Spider crab, etc., under Box, Fiddler. etc."  [1913 Webster]
•  The zodiacal constellation Cancer.  [1913 Webster]
•  A crab apple; -- so named from its harsh taste.  [1913 Webster]

  "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
  Then nightly sings the staring owl."  [1913 Webster]
•  A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.  Garrick.  [1913 Webster]
•  A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.  [1913 Webster]

Calling crab. (Zoöl.) See Fiddler., n., 2. -- Crab apple, a small, sour apple, of several kinds; also, the tree which bears it; as, the European crab apple (Pyrus Malus var. sylvestris); the Siberian crab apple (Pyrus baccata); and the American (Pyrus coronaria). -- Crab grass. (Bot.) (a) A grass (Digitaria sanguinalis syn. Panicum sanguinalis); -- called also finger grass. (b) A grass of the genus Eleusine (Eleusine Indica); -- called also dog's-tail grass, wire grass, etc. -- Crab louse (Zoöl.), a species of louse (Phthirius pubis), sometimes infesting the human body. -- Crab plover (Zoöl.), an Asiatic plover (Dromas ardeola). -- Crab's eyes, or Crab's stones, masses of calcareous matter found, at certain seasons of the year, on either side of the stomach of the European crawfishes, and formerly used in medicine for absorbent and antacid purposes; the gastroliths. -- Crab spider (Zoöl.), one of a group of spiders (Laterigradæ); -- called because they can run backwards or sideways like a crab. -- Crab tree, the tree that bears crab applies. -- Crab wood, a light cabinet wood obtained in Guiana, which takes a high polish. McElrath. -- To catch a crab (Naut.), a phrase used of a rower: (a) when he fails to raise his oar clear of the water; (b) when he misses the water altogether in making a stroke.

crab, v. t. 

•  To make sour or morose; to embitter.  [1913 Webster]

  "Sickness sours or crabs our nature."  [1913 Webster]
•  To beat with a crabstick.  J. Fletcher.  [1913 Webster]

crab, v. i. 

 To drift sidewise or to leeward, as a vessel.  Ham. Nav. Encyc.  [1913 Webster]

crab, a. [Prob. from the same root as crab, n.].

 Sour; rough; austere.  [1913 Webster]
"The crab vintage of the neighb'ring coast."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

crab, n.
1 a any of numerous ten-footed crustaceans having the first pair of legs modified as pincers. b the flesh of a crab, esp. Cancer pagurus, as food.
2 (the Crab) the zodiacal sign or constellation Cancer.
3 (in full crab-louse) (often in pl.) a parasitic louse, Phthirus pubis, infesting hairy parts of the body and causing extreme irritation.
4 a machine for hoisting heavy weights.

Idiom

catch a crab Rowing effect a faulty stroke in which the oar is jammed under water or misses the water altogether. crab-grass US a creeping grass infesting lawns. crab-pot a wicker trap for crabs.

Derivative

crablike adj.

crab, n.
1 (in full crab-apple) a small sour apple-like fruit.
2 (in full crab tree or crab-apple tree) any of several trees bearing this fruit.
3 a sour person.

crab, v. (crabbed, crabbing) colloq.
1 tr. & intr. criticize adversely or captiously; grumble.
2 tr. act so as to spoil (the mistake crabbed his chances).

Etymology

orig. of hawks fighting, f. MLG krabben

THESAURUS

crab

Chinese windlass, Dungeness crab, Japanese crab, Spanish windlass, air a grievance, bank, beef, bellyache, bellyacher, bitch, bleat, blue point, bollix, capstan, cat flea, chigoe, clam, clamor, cockroach, complain, complainant, complainer, coquillage, cramp, crane, crank, crawdad, crawfish, crayfish, crib, crimp, croak, croaker, crosspatch, derrick, dip, dog flea, erector, faultfinder, feather, fishtail, flea, forklift, foul up, fret, fret and fume, frondeur, fuss, gantry crane, grayback, gripe, griper, groan, grouch, grouse, grouser, growl, growler, grumble, grumbler, grunt, gum, gum up, hoist, holler, howl, hydraulic tailgate, jack, jackscrew, jigger, kick, kicker, kvetch, langouste, lever, lift, lifter, limpet, littleneck clam, lobster, lodge a complaint, loop, louse, louse up, malcontent, mite, murmur, murmurer, mussel, mutter, mutterer, nit, oyster, parasite, periwinkle, plow, porpoise, prawn, pull out, pull up, push down, quahog, queer, querulous person, raise a howl, reactionary, reactionist, rebel, red bug, reel, register a complaint, roach, roll, sand flea, scallop, shellfish, shrimp, sideslip, skid, snafu, snail, soft-shell crab, sorehead, spin, spiral, squawk, steamer, stunt, tackle, take on, undulate, vermin, weevil, whelk, whiner, winch, windlass, yammer, yap, yaw, yawp, yelp

ROGET THESAURUS

crab

Difficulty

N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.

Sourness

N sourness, acid, acidity, low pH, acetous fermentation, lactic fermentation, vinegar, verjuice, crab, alum, acetic acid, lactic acid, sour, acid, acidulous, acidulated, tart, crabbed, acetous, acetose, acerb, acetic, sour as vinegar, sourish, acescent, subacid, styptic, hard, rough, sour as a lemon, (4) Odor.