[f. CRAWL v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which crawls; a crawling creature, a reptile, etc.
1649. Lovelace, Lucasta, 140. Unarm’d of wings … Unhappy Crawler on the Land.
1755. Young, Centaur, vi. Wks. 1757, IV. 247. Thou child of the dust!… Thou crawler on earth.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., V. i. 462. The man who dies by the adder’s fang May have the crawler crush’d.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, I. 256. Ignorant crawlers upon earth.
b. spec. A louse. ? Obs. Cf. creeper.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Lousiad, II. Wks. 1812, I. 236. That we, your Cooks, are such a nasty crew … as to have Crawlers in our heads.
1825. Knapp & Baldw., Newgate Cal., IV. 27/2. Crawlers were found in his wounds, and not a piece of black flesh was to be seen on the hinder part of his body where he had been flogged.
2. colloq. A cab moving slowly along the streets in search of a fare.
1865. G. Meredith, Rhoda Fleming (1890), x. 72. Seeing that London cabs, crawlers as they usually were, could, when paid for it, do their business like lightning.
1871. Daily News, 14 Aug., 2/1. To amend the Hackney Carriage Act, in order to prevent what are called ‘crawlers’ plying along the streets.
3. fig. a. One who acts in a mean or servile way; b. A lazy person, loiterer.
1856. Boker, Poems (1857), II. 104. That scheming crawler.
1880. Silver’s Handbk. Australia, 289. Crawlers are not wanted, and will soon discover that they are in the way.
