crab – English verb conjugation

English verb forms of crab

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to crab
Participle: crabbed
Gerund: crabbing

Cognates

-

Indicative

Present

Icrab
youcrab
he;she;itcrabs
wecrab
youcrab
theycrab

Perfect

Ihave crabbed
youhave crabbed
he;she;ithas crabbed
wehave crabbed
youhave crabbed
theyhave crabbed

Past

Icrabbed
youcrabbed
he;she;itcrabbed
wecrabbed
youcrabbed
theycrabbed

Pluperfect

Ihad crabbed
youhad crabbed
he;she;ithad crabbed
wehad crabbed
youhad crabbed
theyhad crabbed

Future

Iwill crab
youwill crab
he;she;itwill crab
wewill crab
youwill crab
theywill crab

Future Perfect

Iwill have crabbed
youwill have crabbed
he;she;itwill have crabbed
wewill have crabbed
youwill have crabbed
theywill have crabbed

Subjunctive

Present

Icrab
youcrab
he;she;itcrab
wecrab
youcrab
theycrab

Perfect

Ihave crabbed
youhave crabbed
he;she;ithave crabbed
wehave crabbed
youhave crabbed
theyhave crabbed

Imperfect

Icrabbed
youcrabbed
he;she;itcrabbed
wecrabbed
youcrabbed
theycrabbed

Pluperfect

Ihad crabbed
youhad crabbed
he;she;ithad crabbed
wehad crabbed
youhad crabbed
theyhad crabbed

Conditional

Present

Iwould crab
youwould crab
he;she;itwould crab
wewould crab
youwould crab
theywould crab

Perfect

Iwould have crabbed
youwould have crabbed
he;she;itwould have crabbed
wewould have crabbed
youwould have crabbed
theywould have crabbed

Imperative

youcrab
weLet's crab
youcrab

Progressive (Continuous) Forms

Indicative

Present

Iam crabbing
youare crabbing
he;she;itis crabbing
weare crabbing
youare crabbing
theyare crabbing

Perfect

Ihave been crabbing
youhave been crabbing
he;she;ithas been crabbing
wehave been crabbing
youhave been crabbing
theyhave been crabbing

Past

Iwas crabbing
youwere crabbing
he;she;itwas crabbing
wewere crabbing
youwere crabbing
theywere crabbing

Pluperfect

Ihad been crabbing
youhad been crabbing
he;she;ithad been crabbing
wehad been crabbing
youhad been crabbing
theyhad been crabbing

Future

Iwill be crabbing
youwill be crabbing
he;she;itwill be crabbing
wewill be crabbing
youwill be crabbing
theywill be crabbing

Future Perfect

Iwill have been crabbing
youwill have been crabbing
he;she;itwill have been crabbing
wewill have been crabbing
youwill have been crabbing
theywill have been crabbing

Conditional

Present

Iwould be crabbing
youwould be crabbing
he;she;itwould be crabbing
wewould be crabbing
youwould be crabbing
theywould be crabbing

Perfect

Iwould have been crabbing
youwould have been crabbing
he;she;itwould have been crabbing
wewould have been crabbing
youwould have been crabbing
theywould have been crabbing

Other

Verbs conjugated like 'crab'

abet, abhor, abut, acquit, admit, affrap, allot, alum, amel, amit, anagram, anvil, apparel, aret, arret, assot, astun, attrap, augur, avel, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)

Verbs similar to 'crab'

cab, cram, crap, craw, crib, drab, frab, grab, scrab, ab,

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

to express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment
bellyache, bleat, carp, chunter, complain, croak, dump on, frine, girn, give out, grotch, gruntle, harp, inveigh, make a stink, murmur, nag, nark, rail, repine, ride, snivel

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. O.E. crabba, from a general Gmc. root (cf. Low Ger. krabben "to scratch, claw"). The constellation name is attested in Eng. from c.1000; the Crab Nebula (1868), however, is in Taurus, and is so called for its shape. Crab "fruit of the wild apple tree" (c.1420) may be from unrelated Scand. scrab, of obscure origin. The combination of "bad-tempered, combative" and "sour" in the two words naturally yielded a meaning of "complain irritably," which is pre-1400, though crabby in this sense is Amer.Eng. 18c. Crabgrass is 1597, originally a marine grass of salt marshes; modern meaning is from 1743.
2. From Middle English crabbe, from Old English crabba (“crab; crayfish; cancer”), from Proto-West Germanic *krabbō, from Proto-Germanic *krabbô, from *krabbōną (“to scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *grobʰeh₂yéti (“to scratch”), a metathesised o-grade of *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). More at carve.
3. Cognates
4. See also Dutch krab, Low German Krabb, Danish krabbe, Swedish krabba.
5. Further cognates with frequentative-infix are Saterland Frisian krabbelje (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch krabbelen (“to scratch”) and German krabbeln (“to crawl”). Possibly related to English creep and Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”) etc.
6. Other origins have also been suggested, see Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos) (regarding the possibility of a substrate origin) and Persian خرچنگ (regarding possible ideophonic origin); compare also Old Armenian քարբ (kʻarb), German Krebs. See: Frisian, Saterlandic 'krabbelje', Dutch 'krabbelen', German, old spelling 'krabbeln', English 'creep', Swedish 'krypa'.

Sample Sentences

  • I thought at the time that that little speech meant a savin' of eight dollars,[…] But the Missus crabbed it a few minutes after her and Bess come in the room. [1916, Ring W. Lardner, “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post:]
  • ‘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, published 2010, page 224:]
  • “The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.” [1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 127:]
  • And if we do have to walk, I don't want to have to listen to you crabbing at me, Tad Trenton. [1981, Stephen King, Cujo, published 2001, page 163:]
  • Well, because of this state of things they crabbed his scheme from the first, ridiculed it, wrote against it, spread broadcast a feeling of distrust. [2007, Douglas Newton, Dr. Odin, page 24:]
  • Mutt stalked forward, matching him, step for step, crabbing sideways the way wolves do when they're going for the kill. [2000, Dana Stabenow, Midnight Come Again, →ISBN, page 251:]
  • The aircraft crabbed sideways in the cross-winds and leveled to horizontal. [2007, Pat DePaolo, The Beijing Games, →ISBN, page 454:]
  • Another shouted order and again the squares crabbed sideways. [2015, Andrew Swanston, Waterloo: The Bravest Man, →ISBN:]
  • Time slowed down then, became liquid in the aftermath of his grotesque, unfolding limbs; he crabbed his way down the faded line, rocking back and forth in braces he would use all his life. [2011, Robert Vivian, The Least Cricket of Evening, page 108:]
  • Foot by foot, he crabbed his way down another ninety feet of rock chimney until he stood on solid ground again, still very much alive. [2019, Ronan Frost, White Peak:]
  • 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:]
  • “Nothing can possibly go wrong.” “Just as you say, sir. But I still have that feeling.” The blood of the Woosters is hot, and I was about to tell him in set terms what I thought of his bally feeling, when I suddenly spotted what it was that was making him crab the act. [1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:]