crawler

[ kraw-ler ]

noun

1. a person or thing that crawls.
2. Digital Technology. web crawler ( def ).
3. Also called crawler tractor. any of various large, heavy vehicles or machines that are propelled on endless belts or tracks, especially as used in construction.
4. hellgrammite.
5. Often crawlers. a garment with long pants, short sleeves or suspender straps, and sometimes feet for a baby who does not yet walk.
6. Australian Slang. sycophant.

crawler

/ ˈkrɔːlə /

noun

1. slang.
   a servile flatterer
2. a person or animal that crawls
3. an informal name for earthworm
4. a computer program that is capable of performing recursive searches on the Internet
5. plural a baby's overalls; rompers

Word History and Origins

Origin of crawler¹

1640–50; 1925–30 crawler fordef 4; crawl ¹ + -er ¹

Example Sentences

When Adam Cooper came across an old junkyard filled with RVs and rock crawlers in South Central, he immediately saw its potential.

From Los Angeles Times

Not another cooking game, but instead a new take on a dungeon crawler where you can team up with your friends to survive in a twisted reality show competition.

From BBC

Despite being a dungeon crawler, the series has an unusually explicit focus on food.

From Salon

Publishers could also try to protect their content from Google by forbidding its web crawler from sharing any content snippets from their sites.

From New York Times

And by aggressively claiming the flag and constantly wrapping their progressive programs in a grand national vision, they never allowed ethnonational creepy crawlers like George Wallace to claim patriotic superiority.

From Salon

Related Words

• babe
• chick
• child
• kid
• toddler
• youngster