Meaning

noun decapod having eyes on short stalks and a broad flattened carapace with a small abdomen folded under the thorax and pincers

noun a quarrelsome grouch

noun (astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Cancer

originFrom 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. Cognates See also Dutch krab, Low German Krabb, Danish krabbe, Swedish krabba. Further cognates…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0