Definition of "crab"

But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw […] that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax

-- "I suppose you wouldn't like to do a locum for a month on the South coast? Three guineas a week with board and lodging." -- "I wouldn't mind," said Philip. -- "It's at Farnley, in Dorsetshire. Doctor South. You'd have to go down at once; his assistant has developed mumps. I believe it's a very pleasant place." There was something in the secretary's manner that puzzled Philip. It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.

1915, W.S. Maugham, “chapter 116”, in Of Human Bondage

Arrested by the low price of another “desirable residence”, I asked “What's the crab?” The agent assured me that there was no crab. I fell in love with this house at sight. Happily, I discovered that it was reputed to be haunted.

1940, Horace Annesley Vachell, Little Tyrannies‎

[…] the unsold copies may be returned to the original publisher , at a period fixed upon between Christmas and Easter; these returned copies are technically called krebse or crabs, probably, from their walking backwards. […] A says to B, "I have had eight thousand dollars' worth of your publications, three thousand were crabs, that makes five thousand."

1844, Albert Henry Payne, Payne's universum, or pictorial world, page 99

[…] unsold copies and settling the yearly accounts; while for the publisher begins the much dreaded season of "crabs," as […]

1892, The Publishers Weekly, volume 41, page 709

I thought at the time that that little speech meant a savin' of eight dollars, […] But the Missus crabbed it a few minutes after her and Bess come in the room.

1916, Ring W. Lardner, “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post‎

‘Just so we understand each other,’ he said after a pause. ‘If you crab this case, you'll be in a jam.’

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 224

“The thing to do is to forget about the heat,” said Tom impatiently. “You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it.”

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, page 127

And if we do have to walk, I don't want to have to listen to you crabbing at me, Tad Trenton.

1981, Stephen King, Cujo, published 2001, page 163

Well, because of this state of things they crabbed his scheme from the first, ridiculed it, wrote against it, spread broadcast a feeling of distrust.

2007, Douglas Newton, Dr. Odin, page 24

Mutt stalked forward, matching him, step for step, crabbing sideways the way wolves do when they're going for the kill.

2000, Dana Stabenow, Midnight Come Again, page 251

The aircraft crabbed sideways in the cross-winds and leveled to horizontal.

2007, Pat DePaolo, The Beijing Games, page 454

Another shouted order and again the squares crabbed sideways.

2015, Andrew Swanston, Waterloo: The Bravest Man

Time slowed down then, became liquid in the aftermath of his grotesque, unfolding limbs; he crabbed his way down the faded line, rocking back and forth in braces he would use all his life.

2011, Robert Vivian, The Least Cricket of Evening, page 108

Foot by foot, he crabbed his way down another ninety feet of rock chimney until he stood on solid ground again, still very much alive.

2019, Ronan Frost, White Peak

If panning is not easy to make seem natural, crabbing the camera is even less like any action we perform with our eyes in the real world. There are a few circumstances in which we walk sideways: […]

1997, Paul Kriwaczek, Documentary for the Small Screen, page 109

“Nothing can possibly go wrong.” “Just as you say, sir. But I still have that feeling.” The blood of the Woosters is hot, and I was about to tell him in set terms what I thought of his bally feeling, when I suddenly spotted what it was that was making him crab the act.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins

I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts;

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]

Just as by cultivation the acrid wild crab has been developed into the beautiful and luscious apple, may the unripe, ill-fed, neglected wild fruits of the fields and slums be developed into pure and noble and beautiful men and women.

1895, Robert Blatchford, “The New Party in the North”, in Andrew Reid, editor, The New Party Described by Some of its Members‎, London: Hodder Brothers, page 24

She swore to such things , that I could do nothing but swear and call names : upon which out bolts her husband upon me , with a fine taper crab in his hand and fell upon me with such violence , that , being half delirious , I made a full confession

1741, David Garrick, The Lying Valet

Get you to bed, drab, courage Or l'll so crab your shoulders!

1639, John Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas

I was on a horse named The Skipper, a perfect terror to ride when he was in a bad humour, which he invariably was; nevertheless he was a splendid hunter and I never crabbed him.

1935, Jack Molyneux, John Fairfax-Blakeborough, Thirty Years a Hunt Servant: Being the Memories of Jack Molyneux, page 161

The Shiremans had a down on him over stores he'd condemned as not fit for dogs, let alone able seamen, and they'd got wind he was a socialist, and they crabbed him all over the shipping companies' offices.

2021, H. De Vere Stacpoole, Vanderdecken