Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The crop of a bird or insect.
  • noun The stomach of an animal.
  • idiom (stick in (one's) craw) To cause one to feel abiding discontent and resentment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The crop or first stomach of a bird, technically called the ingluvies.
  • noun Figuratively, the stomach of any animal.
  • noun The ingluvies or enlarged extremity of the esophagus in certain insects. See cut under Blattidæ.
  • noun Scotch form of crow.
  • noun Scotch form of crow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The crop of a bird.
  • noun The stomach of an animal.

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

  • noun archaic The stomach of an animal.
  • noun The crop of a bird.
  • verb archaic to caw, crow, for certain birds to make their cry

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a pouch in many birds and some lower animals that resembles a stomach for storage and preliminary maceration of food

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English crawe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Akin to Middle Low German krage ("neck, collar") (whence Danish krave and German Kragen ("collar"))

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Examples

  • Sticking most in my craw is having to miss the Long Beach Opera's "No Mozart" show, honoring the composer's anniversary year by featuring none of his music but three works by Nyman, Andriessen, and Part about Mozart and his legacy.

    Archive 2006-09-01 2006

  • Sticking most in my craw is having to miss the Long Beach Opera's "No Mozart" show, honoring the composer's anniversary year by featuring none of his music but three works by Nyman, Andriessen, and Part about Mozart and his legacy.

    Weekend Update II 2006

  • But what really sticks in my craw is I'm here sitting in a stadium other taxpayers and I paid for.

    USATODAY.com - For many, devotion is one-way street 2002

  • The Personal Democracy Forum provided plenty of food for thought to masticate, but one bit that’s stuck in my craw is the way the phrase “citizen journalism,” which should denote an important concept, seems to be turning into a marketing buzzword for mediocre writers.

    On “Citizen Journalism” 2008

  • But the thing that stuck in my craw was the statement:

    What's going on in M�xico? 2008

  • Testament activism and what stuck in her craw was a 1977 Miami-Dade

    The Campaign: The Audacity of Hope Did Not Die in Maine 2009

  • The last thing that sticks in my craw is the voiceover of how the Centurions "were given their freedom" and let go on the Base Ship and the "2s,6s and 8s agreed to live" on new Earth ... yet there is no mention of the 1s, 4s and 5s.

    Archive 2009-03-01 radii 2009

  • The last thing that sticks in my craw is the voiceover of how the Centurions "were given their freedom" and let go on the Base Ship and the "2s,6s and 8s agreed to live" on new Earth ... yet there is no mention of the 1s, 4s and 5s.

    VARIANTS: DAYBREAK, PT II - REVIEW radii 2009

  • Testament activism and what stuck in her craw was a 1977 Miami-Dade

    Printing: The Campaign: The Audacity of Hope Did Not Die in Maine 2009

  • Beauty queen Bryant preached an Old Testament activism and what stuck in her craw was a 1977 Miami-Dade County amendment to the local human rights ordinance making it illegal to discriminate in housing, loans, and employment based upon sexual preference.

    Georgianne Nienaber: The Campaign: The Audacity of Hope Did Not Die in Maine 2009

Comments

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  • While these things were going on in the buttery, kindred exploits were performing in the kitchen. The cook too was regaling three or four tradesmen of his acquaintance, who liked good wine as well as ourselves, nor disdained to stuff their craws with meat pasties and game: the very scullions were at free quarters, and filched whatever they pleased.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 7 ch. 14

    October 2, 2008

  • You don't want to get anything stuck in this.

    October 2, 2008

  • No.

    October 2, 2008