crawler

[kraw-ler]

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.

crawler

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of crawler¹

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.

Read more on 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.

Read more on 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.

Read more on 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.

Read more on Salon

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

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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