crawler

American  

[kraw-ler] / ˈkrɔ lər /

noun

1. a person or thing that crawls.

2. Digital Technology.  web crawler.

3. Also called crawler tractor.  any of various large, heavy vehicles or machines that are propelled on endless belts or tracks, especially as used in construction.

4. hellgrammite.

5. Often crawlers. a garment with long pants, short sleeves or suspender straps, and sometimes feet for a baby who does not yet walk.

6. Australian Slang.  sycophant.

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crawler British  

/ ˈkrɔːlə /

noun

1. slang  a servile flatterer

2. a person or animal that crawls

3. an informal name for earthworm

4. a computer program that is capable of performing recursive searches on the Internet

5. (plural) a baby's overalls; rompers

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Etymology

Origin of crawler

1640–50; 1925–30 crawler for def. 4; crawl ¹ + -er ¹

Example Sentences

“Walmart is clearly ahead of the curve here, while others have been slow to adapt or even made efforts to block AI web crawlers,” he wrote.

From Barron's

Cloudflare's tech targets AI firm bots - also known as crawlers - programmes that explore the web, indexing and collecting data as they go.

From BBC

Much of the material used to develop generative AI models has been pulled from a massive range of web sources using bots and crawlers, which automatically extract site data.

From BBC

When the crew of the colonization mission discover that their new home, an ice planet called Niflheim, is inhabited by armadillo-like crawler creatures, they wonder what to do about this unanticipated roadblock in their efforts.

From Salon

When Adam Cooper came across an old junkyard filled with RVs and rock crawlers in South Central, he immediately saw its potential.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• babe
• chick
• child
• kid
• toddler
• youngster