What does crawled mean?
Crawled is the past tense and past participle of crawl, a verb with both literal and figurative senses. Literally, it describes moving forward on the hands and knees, or dragging the body close to the ground — how infants travel before they can walk, and how soldiers might advance under fire. Figuratively, it conveys painfully slow progress: traffic crawls during rush hour, a queue crawls toward the counter, and tedious hours seem to crawl by. It also appears in the vivid idiom 'make your skin crawl', expressing visceral disgust or dread. Crawled is neutral in register and common in everyday speech and journalism alike. Its connotations range from vulnerability and effortfulness to tedium and creeping fear, which gives writers a flexible word for describing both physical movement and the agonizing passage of time.
verbPast tense and past participle of crawl: to move forward slowly on the hands and knees, or to progress very slowly, as of traffic or time.
- To move slowly on the hands and knees or with the body close to the ground.
- To move or progress extremely slowly, as traffic, queues, or work.
- (Of insects) to creep along a surface.
- To feel as if insects were moving over the skin (as in 'my skin crawled').
"The wounded soldier crawled toward cover under heavy fire."
"The toddler crawled across the living room floor toward her toys."
"Traffic crawled along the motorway for nearly two hours after the crash."
Babies typically learn to crawl before they walk — but the word itself may come from an Old Norse root shared by Swedish 'kräla', meaning to claw one's way along.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crawled
Crawl derives from Middle English 'crallen', likely borrowed from Old Norse, and is related to Swedish 'kräla' and Dutch 'krabbelen'. It entered English during the medieval period and has retained its core sense of slow, low-to-the-ground movement ever since. Cognates within Germanic languages share the idea of creeping or clawing along.
Related word forms
How crawled is actually used
Neutral in register; usable in both formal and informal contexts. The figurative sense of slow progress is very common in news reporting about traffic or negotiations. The reflexive/idiomatic sense in 'make someone's skin crawl' carries strong connotations of disgust or unease.
Easily confused with crawled
Crowed means boasted or made a rooster's sound (from 'crow'), while crawled refers to slow, low movement.