Meaning

noun a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage

noun a person who crawls or creeps along the ground

noun terrestrial worm that burrows into and helps aerate soil; often surfaces when the ground is cool or wet; used as bait by anglers

originFrom crawl (“to act in a servile manner”) + -er. From the Australian convict period (1788–1850); a prisoner who was purposely and extensively abused by an overseer (also a convict) and thereby driven to escape but who, finding it impossible to survive in the Australian bush, surrenders to this overseer, who would then have his penal term reduced. The particular crawler was picked for his weak…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0