different between crab vs crayfish
crab
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /k?æb/, enPR: kr?b
- Rhymes: -æb
Etymology 1
From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabb?, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabb?n? (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *grob?- (“scratch, claw at”), a variant of *gereb?-. More at carve.
Noun
crab (countable and uncountable, plural crabs)
- A crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
- (uncountable) The meat of this crustacean, served as food; crabmeat
- A bad-tempered person.
- (in plural crabs, informal) An infestation of pubic lice (Pthirus pubis).
- (uncountable, aviation) The angle by which an aircraft's nose is pointed upwind of its groundtrack to compensate for crosswinds during an approach to landing.
- (slang) A playing card with the rank of three.
- (rowing) A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
- A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
- 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 116
- -- "I suppose you wouldn't like to do a locum for a month on the South coast? Three guineas a week with board and lodging." -- "I wouldn't mind," said Philip. -- "It's at Farnley, in Dorsetshire. Doctor South. You'd have to go down at once; his assistant has developed mumps. I believe it's a very pleasant place." There was something in the secretary's manner that puzzled Philip. It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.
- 1940, Horace Annesley Vachell, Little Tyrannies
- Arrested by the low price of another “desirable residence”, I asked “What's the crab?” The agent assured me that there was no crab. I fell in love with this house at sight. Happily, I discovered that it was reputed to be haunted.
- 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 116
- (dated) An unsold book that is returned to the publisher.
- 1844, Albert Henry Payne, Payne's universum, or pictorial world (page 99)
- […] the unsold copies may be returned to the original publisher , at a period fixed upon between Christmas and Easter; these returned copies are technically called krebse or crabs, probably, from their walking backwards. […] A says to B, "I have had eight thousand dollars' worth of your publications, three thousand were crabs, that makes five thousand."
- 1892, The Publishers Weekly (volume 41, page 709)
- […] unsold copies and settling the yearly accounts; while for the publisher begins the much dreaded season of "crabs," as […]
- 1844, Albert Henry Payne, Payne's universum, or pictorial world (page 99)
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)
- (intransitive) To fish for crabs.
- (transitive, US, slang) To ruin.
- 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin 2010, p. 224:
- ‘Just so we understand each other,’ he said after a pause. ‘If you crab this case, you'll be in a jam.’
- 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin 2010, p. 224:
- (intransitive) To complain.
- (intransitive) To drift or move sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Ham. Nav. Encyc to this entry?)
- (transitive, aviation) To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
- (transitive, film, television) To move (a camera) sideways.
- 1997, Paul Kriwaczek, Documentary for the Small Screen (page 109)
- If panning is not easy to make seem natural, crabbing the camera is even less like any action we perform with our eyes in the real world. There are a few circumstances in which we walk sideways: […]
- 1997, Paul Kriwaczek, Documentary for the Small Screen (page 109)
- (obsolete, World War I), to fly slightly off the straight-line course towards an enemy aircraft, as the machine guns on early aircraft did not allow firing through the propeller disk.
- (rare) To back out of something.
Derived terms
- crabber
- crabbing
Etymology 2
From Middle English crabbe (“wild apple”), of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic, cognate with Swedish dialect scrabba.
Noun
crab (plural crabs)
- The crab apple or wild apple.
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 2 scene 2
- I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
- And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts;
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 2 scene 2
- The tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
- A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Garrick to this entry?)
- A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
- A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.
- A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.
- A claw for anchoring a portable machine.
Synonyms
- (crab apple): crab apple
- (tree): crab apple
Derived terms
Verb
crab (third-person singular simple present crabs, present participle crabbing, simple past and past participle crabbed)
- (obsolete) To irritate, make surly or sour
- To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
- (British dialect) To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick
- (Can we find and add a quotation of J. Fletcher to this entry?)
Derived terms
Etymology 3
Possibly a corruption of the genus name Carapa
Noun
crab (plural crabs)
- The tree species Carapa guianensis, native to South America.
Derived terms
- crab-nut
- crab oil
Etymology 4
From carabiner.
Noun
crab (plural crabs)
- (informal) Short for carabiner.
References
- Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ?ISBN
- Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the English Language. International Edition. combined with Britannica World Language Dictionary. Chicago-London etc., Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., 1965.
Anagrams
- BRAC, RBAC, carb, carb-, cbar
Middle English
Etymology 1
Inherited from Old English crabba.
Noun
crab
- Alternative form of crabbe (“crab”)
Etymology 2
Of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic.
Noun
crab
- Alternative form of crabbe (“crabapple”)
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French crabe.
Noun
crab m (plural crabi)
- crab
See also
- crevet?
- homar
- rac
crab From the web:
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- what crab is mr krabs
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crayfish
English
Alternative forms
- crawfish; craifish (obsolete), crafish, crefish (obsolete); crevis, crevice, crevyssh (obsolete)
Etymology
Alteration (by folk etymology, influenced by fish) of Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice ("crayfish"; > Modern French: écrevisse), from Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of Frankish *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), from Proto-Indo-European *greb?-, *gereb?- (“to scratch, crawl”). Akin to Old High German krebiz ("edible crustacean, crab"; > Modern German Krebs (“crab”)), Middle Low German kr?vet (“crab”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”). More at crab.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?k?e??f??/
Noun
crayfish (plural crayfishes or crayfish)
- Any of numerous freshwater decapod crustaceans in superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea, resembling the related lobster but usually much smaller.
- (New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) A freshwater crustacean (family Cambaridae), sometimes used as an inexpensive seafood or as fish bait.
- (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A rock lobster (family Palinuridae).
- (Singapore) The species Thenus orientalis of the slipper lobster family.
Usage notes
The term crayfish predominates in the region of New England and in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In much of the United States—in the South, especially in Louisiana and Texas; in the Midwest and in the West—crawfish predominates. In a belt stretching across Kentucky through Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and in Oregon and northern California, the term crawdad predominates.
Synonyms
- (freshwater crustaceans): crawdad, crawldad, crawfish, crawlfish, mudbug, yabby (Australia)
Derived terms
- crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci)
Translations
Verb
crayfish (third-person singular simple present crayfishes, present participle crayfishing, simple past and past participle crayfished)
- to catch crayfish
- Alternative form of crawfish (to backpedal, desert, or withdraw)
Translations
See also
- lobster
- prawn
- shrimp
- yabby
References
Further reading
- crayfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- crayfish at OneLook Dictionary Search
crayfish From the web:
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- what crayfish can you eat
- what crayfish look like
- what crayfish eat in the wild
- crawfish taste like
- crawfish restaurant
- what crayfish live in minnesota
- what crayfish vs crawfish
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