Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. Sideways.
- adv. In a furtive or circumspect manner; indirectly.
Wiktionary
- adj. In the manner of a crab; sideways.
- adj. figuratively Incidental.
- adv. In the manner of a crab; sideways.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of movement) at an angle
Etymologies
- From crab + -wise. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Layered with countless motifs from Albanian folklore involving betrayal, incest, shame and horror, as well as tragic themes from Plato, Virgil and Cervantes, this section of the narrative is a "crabwise" unfolding of their last 40 days, compiled by a researcher whose own obsession with the case is never explained, but who is ultimately confounded by the unanswerable question: "What right have we got in this pitch-black night to ask about things that are beyond our powers to see?”
“I wouldn't say that that evening was born a lifelong passion for theatre – it's been a slow, crabwise journey to get there – but it did do something.”
“ With a sharp pull and a crabwise motion, it was possible to open the door and pass through it.”
“But the crabwise trajectory of their investigation suggests that the quest is just a framework on which to hang Schacht's energetic soliloquies.”
“Metre-high players scuttle crabwise across the pitch.”
“The horse had run backwards, cantered crabwise, turned in circles, ignored every instruction and used his vast muscle power to make a fool of the slight man on his back.”
Fictionaut: They didn’t read Pitchfork or Stereogum or Gorilla vs. Bear or Hipster Runoff
“He ducked his head beneath his tunic, turning his face against the wall, and crept, crabwise and even more slowly, up the stairs.”
“The little homestead was on the move, inching crabwise across the Pilliga.”
“That was a while ago, and he can't walk these days unless he clings to furniture and creeps along crabwise, so I'm hoping he'll have better luck getting the equipment in Reno.”
“Yet the political parody seldom catches fire, and the story stops dead in its crabwise tracks for some frantic nonsense in which a greedy landlord turns predatory developer, and Mariah Carey plays herself with agonizing difficulty.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘crabwise’.
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I'm getting smarter
Words that end in -wise.
coastwise, clockwise, counterclockwise, otherwise, likewise, crabwise, leastwise, streetwise, penny-wise, lengthwise, contrariwise, thwartwise and 59 more...
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xyzprincess's Words
crabwise, virtu, peripatetic, idyll, trencherman, equivocate, flummery, hoi polloi, pixilated, albatross, wangle, bodacious and 170 more...
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Henderson the Rain King
Words taken from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.
yellowback, unkillable, swack, hoarfrost, decapotable, brownian, mackinaw, taxwise, oratorio, picaresque, masonite, catalpa and 109 more...
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Adverbia
A long list of adverbs, beginning with full-drive. Someone had to list them. This list in continued in the list More Adverbia.
Read some sniping and some informative commentary about a...full-drive, portentously, unlawfully, legally, heterogeneously, consumingly, clancularly, inconsolably, prepositionally, retrogressively, symptomatically, decrepitly and 2460 more...
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itsmemandy's Words
crabwise, incognito, congeal, coagulate, incinerate, immolate, appease, acquiesce, redux, secrecy, atria, shakuhachi and 114 more...
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C is for Caddyshack
My C Words
cavalcade, charlie browniest, cakewalk, clambake, caboose, cadaver, caddyshack, cadillac, cahoots, calaboose, cannonball, canopy and 145 more...
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Words of Blood Meridian
"Toadvine looked at him. The necklace of human ears he wore looked like a string of dried black figs. He was big and raw-looking and one eyelid sagged where a knife had severed the small muscles th...
apishamore, scullery, hewer, leonids, kitchenhouse, washpot, husbandman, bottomland, flatboat, boatswain, pesthouse, coastwise and 29 more...
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maryforrest's Words
apophenia, panoply, hobbledehoy, gimcrack, gewgaw, susurrus, zeitgeist, philomath, aver, rara avis, arcanum, apostasy and 25 more...
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Dictionary.com Words of the Days of 2004
1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008
As it turns out, WotD really enjoys repeating itself. Though mildly infuriating it was, I've added the fi...buss, roue, abecedarian, crabwise, glabrous, tarradiddle, irrupt, agrestic, cap-a-pie, fetor, olla podrida, primogeniture and 31 more...
Tweets
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