Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having some characteristics of a crab
  • adjective Walking or moving sideways

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

crab +‎ -like. In sense “moving sideways”, due to crab’s sideways walk.

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Examples

  • I tottered down the aisle sideways, crablike, trying not to bump the bags against the seats.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

  • A created race, crablike, used in Cliff's evolutionary intelligence experiments.

    Archive 2010-06-01 Blue Tyson 2010

  • I took an enormous step backward, too fast, and I stumbled, my hands crablike behind me, gripping tufts of spring grass.

    The Bird House Kelly Simmons 2011

  • I tottered down the aisle sideways, crablike, trying not to bump the bags against the seats.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

  • A created race, crablike, used in Cliff's evolutionary intelligence experiments.

    Free Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror: Crystal Nights - Greg Egan Blue Tyson 2010

  • I took an enormous step backward, too fast, and I stumbled, my hands crablike behind me, gripping tufts of spring grass.

    The Bird House Kelly Simmons 2011

  • It would tell her how to place the crablike feet for safety and speed, how to search recesses of the barren land for little wisps of sustenance or water.

    Songs of Love & Death George R. R. Martin 2010

  • One twice his size with crablike claws, eight legs, and a shiny black exoskeleton.

    Artemis the Brave Joan Holub 2010

  • With her new thick crablike appendages, Muthr grasped her headless original body and raised it.

    The Search For WondLa Tony DiTerlizzi 2010

  • One sleeve was down, and the other up, his crablike fingers scrambling over the cotton.

    The Recall Year Emily Schultz 2010

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