crawl (redirected from being crawling)

come/crawl out of the woodwork

to appear after being hidden or not active for a long time, especially in order to do something unpleasant. After you've been in a relationship for a long while, all sorts of little secrets start to come out of the woodwork. Racists and extreme nationalists are crawling out of the woodwork to protest at the sudden increase in the number of immigrants.

See also: come, woodwork

kerb-crawling (British & Australian, American)

a kerb-crawler - someone who drives slowly along a road looking for someone to have sex with. There was a big scandal after the judge was prosecuted for kerb-crawling.

make someone's flesh crawl/creep

if someone or something makes your flesh creep, you think they are extremely unpleasant or frightening. Spiders and insects really make my flesh crawl. (often in present tenses) I hate that guy in accounts, he makes my flesh creep.

See also: creep, flesh

make someone's skin crawl

if something or someone makes your skin crawl, you think they are very unpleasant or frightening. Just thinking about the way he had touched her made her skin crawl.

See also: skin

a pub crawl (British & Australian, informal)

an occasion on which you go to several different pubs (= type of bar found in Britain) in order to drink alcohol. I thought we might go on a pub crawl tonight.

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crawling with something

full of something. Because the Internet is crawling with sports fans, the league thinks it can build an international audience online.

Etymology: based on the literal meaning of crawl with something (= to be covered by insects or other small creatures)

make your skin crawl

to be very frightening or disgusting. Just thinking about the weird way he talked made her skin crawl.

See also: skin