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crabwise

[krab-wahyz]
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adverb

sideways: patrons edging crabwise along the crowded row of theater seats.

Origin of crabwise

First recorded in 1900–05; crab1 + -wise
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for crabwise

oblique, side, obliquely, sidelong, edgeways, flanking, sideward, skirting, alongside, aside, athwart, indirectly, laterally, slanting, sloping, aslant, aslope, broadside, slantwise

Examples from the Web for crabwise

Historical Examples of crabwise

  • Instead, he sidled, crabwise, into the middle of the street.

    H. R.

    Edwin Lefevre

  • "Oh—well—gee—of course—" sighed Graff, as he went out, crabwise.

    Babbitt

    Sinclair Lewis

  • Mr. Wayne stiffened and wheeled; Mr. Briggs sidled hastily toward the doorway, crabwise; the poet choked back the word, Phup!

    Iole

    Robert W. Chambers

British Dictionary definitions for crabwise

crabwise

adjective, adverb

(of motion) sideways; like a crab
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012