Crowl
/kraʊl/noun
A dialectal English verb meaning to crawl or move slowly close to the ground.
Did you know?“Crowl” is not a magical word in origin, but its relationship to “crawl” reflects how English dialects often preserve older forms that standard English later abandons.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic period
Germanic
*krab-
“A reconstructed sound-symbolic root associated with scraping, clawing, or crawling; its exact reconstruction is uncertain.”
Old Norse
Old Norse
krafla
“To claw, paw, or scrape along.”
Middle English
Middle English
craulen / crowlen
“To crawl or creep; variant spellings circulated in medieval English.”
14th–15th Century
English
crawlen / crowlen
“To move on hands and knees or close to the ground.”
Modern dialect English
English
crowl
“A regional or dialectal variant meaning “crawl,” preserved outside standard English.”