1. Characterized by or manifesting, sourness, peevishness, or moroseness; harsh; cross; cynical; — applied
to feelings, disposition, or manners.
Crabbed age and youth can not live together.
Shak.
2. Characterized by harshness or roughness; unpleasant; — applied to things; as, a crabbed taste.
3. Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying; as, a crabbed author. "Crabbed eloquence." Chaucer.
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose.
Milton.
4. Cramped; irregular; as, crabbed handwriting.
— Crab"bed*ly, adv. — Crab"bed*ness, n.
Crabber
(Crab"ber) n. One who catches crabs.
Crabbing
(Crab"bing), n.
1. The act or art of catching crabs.
2. (Falconry) The fighting of hawks with each other.
3. (Woolen Manuf.) A process of scouring cloth between rolls in a machine.
Crabbish
(Crab"bish) a. Somewhat sour or cross.
The whips of the most crabbish Satyristes.
Decker.
Crabby
(Crab"by) a. Crabbed; difficult, or perplexing. "Persius is crabby, because ancient." Marston.
Crabeater
(Crab"eat`er) n. (Zoöl.) (a) The cobia. (b) An etheostomoid fish of the southern United
States (Hadropterus nigrofasciatus). (c) A small European heron (Ardea minuta, and other allied species).
Craber
(Cra"ber) n. (Zoöl.) The water rat. Walton.
Crabfaced
(Crab"faced`) a. Having a sour, disagreeable countenance. Beau. & Fl.
Crabsidle
(Crab"si`dle) v. i. To move sidewise, as a crab. [Jocular]. Southey.
Crabstick
(Crab"stick`) n. A stick, cane, or cudgel, made of the wood of the crab tree.
Crab tree
(Crab" tree) See under Crab.
Crab-yaws
(Crab"-yaws`) n. (Med.) A disease in the West Indies. It is a kind of ulcer on the soles of
the feet, with very hard edges. See Yaws. Dunglison.
Crache
(Crache) v. To scratch. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Crack
(Crack) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cracked (krakt); p. pr. & vb. n. Cracking.] [OE. cracken, craken,
to crack, break, boast, AS. cracian, cearcian, to crack; akin to D. kraken, G. krachen; cf. Skr. garj to
rattle, or perh. of imitative origin. Cf. Crake, Cracknel, Creak.]
1. To break or burst, with or without entire separation of the parts; as, to crack glass; to crack nuts.
