crawler

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːlə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From crawl (“to move slowly, by dragging the body along the ground”) +‎ -er.

Caterpillar D9 crawler tractor.

Cochineal (the crawler is on the left)

Noun

crawler (plural crawlers)

1. A child who is able to creep using its hands and knees but is not able to walk.
2. (sports) A crawl swimmer.
3. A tractor crawler, a motorized vehicle that uses caterpillar tracks instead of wheels.
4. (Internet) A software bot that autonomously follows connected paths such as links between web pages.

   Synonym: spider

   • 2008, Alex Michael, Ben Salter, Marketing Through Search Optimization, Routledge, →ISBN, page xii:

     Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. The first is the spider, also called the crawler, which visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site.

   • 2011, James Pearce, Professional Mobile Web Development with WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal, page 466:

     These serve as an algorithmic way to judge the “mobileness” of a site, and similar algorithms are likely to be used by the search crawlers.

5. A mobile stage in the development of stationary hemipteran insects such as scale insects—generally the first instar.

Derived terms

• church crawler
• crawlerize
• crawler lane
• crawler track
• crawlerway
• creepy crawler
• curb crawler
• dungeon crawler
• ice crawler
• kerb crawler
• metacrawler
• nightcrawler
• pub crawler
• wallcrawler
• wall-crawler
• wall crawler
• Web crawler

 

Translations

child able to creep

• Finnish: ryömintäikäinen, konttaaja
• Polish: pełzak m
• Russian: ползу́н (ru) m (polzún)
• Spanish: bebe (es) m

crawl swimmer

• Czech: kraulař m (colloquial), kraulařka (cs) f
• Finnish: kroolaaja, vapaauimari, kroolari
• Slovak: krauliar m, krauliarka f

tractor crawler

• Arabic: زَحَّافَة f (zaḥḥāfa)
• Finnish: telaketjutraktori
• German: Raupe (de) f
• Kabuverdianu: katrapila
• Malay: traktor rangkak
• Russian: гу́сеничный тра́ктор m (gúseničnyj tráktor)
• Spanish: trator oruga m

software bot

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 爬蟲／爬虫 (zh) (páchóng)

• Finnish: hakurobotti
• Icelandic: vefskriðill m, vefkönguló f, skriðill m, könguló (is) f
• Malay: perangkak
• Serbo-Croatian: pobirač (sh) m, program pauk m
• Spanish: rastreador web

Etymology 2

From crawl (“to act in a servile manner”) +‎ -er.

From the Australian convict period (1788–1850); a prisoner who was purposely and extensively abused by an overseer (also a convict) and thereby driven to escape but who, finding it impossible to survive in the Australian bush, surrenders to this overseer, who would then have his penal term reduced. The particular crawler was picked for his weak personality and might escape and return a number of times increasing his own penal term each time. According to James Tucker, some convict overseers had their sentences extensively reduced using this odious practice.

Noun

crawler (plural crawlers)

1. (Australia, obsolete) A person who is abused, physically or verbally, and returns to the abuser a supplicant.
2. (UK, Australia, slang) A sycophant.

Translations

sycophant — see sycophant

abused person

• Spanish: adulador (es) m

Anagrams

• recrawl

French

Etymology

From crawl +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁo.le/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

crawler

1. (transitive, intransitive) to swim using the crawl stroke
2. (transitive, intransitive, Internet) to spider

Conjugation

Conjugation of crawler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	crawler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	crawlant /kʁo.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		crawlé /kʁo.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	crawle /kʁol/	crawles /kʁol/	crawle /kʁol/	crawlons /kʁo.lɔ̃/	crawlez /kʁo.le/	crawlent /kʁol/
	imperfect	crawlais /kʁo.lɛ/	crawlais /kʁo.lɛ/	crawlait /kʁo.lɛ/	crawlions /kʁo.ljɔ̃/	crawliez /kʁo.lje/	crawlaient /kʁo.lɛ/
	past historic2	crawlai /kʁo.le/	crawlas /kʁo.la/	crawla /kʁo.la/	crawlâmes /kʁo.lam/	crawlâtes /kʁo.lat/	crawlèrent /kʁo.lɛʁ/
	future	crawlerai /kʁol.ʁe/	crawleras /kʁol.ʁa/	crawlera /kʁol.ʁa/	crawlerons /kʁol.ʁɔ̃/	crawlerez /kʁol.ʁe/	crawleront /kʁol.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	crawlerais /kʁol.ʁɛ/	crawlerais /kʁol.ʁɛ/	crawlerait /kʁol.ʁɛ/	crawlerions /kʁo.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	crawleriez /kʁo.lə.ʁje/	crawleraient /kʁol.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	crawle /kʁol/	crawles /kʁol/	crawle /kʁol/	crawlions /kʁo.ljɔ̃/	crawliez /kʁo.lje/	crawlent /kʁol/
	imperfect2	crawlasse /kʁo.las/	crawlasses /kʁo.las/	crawlât /kʁo.la/	crawlassions /kʁo.la.sjɔ̃/	crawlassiez /kʁo.la.sje/	crawlassent /kʁo.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	crawle /kʁol/	—	crawlons /kʁo.lɔ̃/	crawlez /kʁo.le/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “crawler”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.