Crawl
/krɔːl/noun
To move forward on hands and knees or with the body close to the ground.
Did you know?Crawl is not a word with a dramatic occult origin, but it likely began as a Germanic word imitating the squirming, creeping motion it describes—language turning movement into sound.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*krabōną / *krabjaną
“to creep, crawl, or scrape along”
Old English
OE
crawan / cræwlan
“to creep or move with the body close to the ground”
Middle English
ME
crawlen
“to move slowly on hands and knees; to creep”
16th Century
English
crawl
“to creep or move slowly on the ground”
Modern English
English
crawl
“to move forward on hands and knees or close to the ground”