Meaning

noun a very slow movement

noun a swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick

noun a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body

originFrom Middle English crawlen, crewlen, creulen, crallen, *cravelen, from Old Norse krafla (compare Danish kravle (“to crawl, creep”), Swedish kravla, kräla (“to creep, crawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *krablōną (compare Saterland Frisian krabbelje, Dutch krabbelen, German Low German krabbeln, German krabbeln), frequentative of *krabbōną (“to scratch, scrape”). Compare also Saterland Frisian krauelje…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0