The AI-powered English dictionary
plural crews
A group of people together
(obsolete) Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng. quotations
There a noble crew / Of Lordes and Ladies stood on every side.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 7
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, airplane, or spacecraft. quotations examples
He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to some strange exceptional process of decay.
1905, H. G. Wells, The Empire of the Ants
There's a change of driver halfway at Crianlarich. Glasgow crews bring the 35-year-old Class 156 north, then wait to take over the next train back south. Crews from Mallaig, Oban and Fort William take their trains from the coast to Crianlarich and swap over. There's a tiny rest room on the platform, with a microwave and a sink, while they wait. Some drivers are signed all the way to the city. Most are not.
2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, pages 37-38
A group of people working together on a task. examples
(art) The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast. examples
(informal, often derogatory) A close group of friends. examples
(often derogatory) A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker. quotations examples
He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few, / And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru; / They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew, / But his soul is marching on.
1861 William Weston Patton, (version of) John Brown's Body
Malignant principles bear fruit in kind and the Revolution did no more than practice what men had been taught by the abandoned crew of philosophers.
1950, Bernard Nicholas Schilling, Conservative England and the Case Against Voltaire, page 266
(scouting) A group of Rovers. examples
(slang, hip-hop) A hip-hop or b-boying group. quotations
And Jay cuts the records every day of the week / And we are the crew that can never be meek
1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC
The most popular and critically acclaimed rap and deejay “crews”—Run-D.M.C., Whodini, L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys, the Fat Boys, Public Enemy, Full Force, Salt & Pepa, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Mantronix, U.T.F.O., et al.—were spawned on that city's streets.
1988 February 7, Carly Darling, “L.A.—The Second Deffest City of Hip-Hop”, in Los Angeles Times
We decided we needed another rapper in the crew and spent months looking.
2003, Jennifer Guglielmo, Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White?, page 150
In b-boying culture, a group of b-boys or b-girls who dance and battle together are referred to as a crew.
2016, Sophy Smith, Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration, Routledge, page 10
[…] mutating into all-star line-ups of emcees spitting hot bars over familiar beats, then to a single crew spitting bars over familiar beats, then eventually to a single crew (or artist) spitting bars over unfamiliar beats.
2021, Jehnie I. Burns, Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation, page 138
(rowing) A rowing team manning a single shell. quotations examples
If a crew feather much under water, it is a good plan to seat them in a row on a bench, and give each man a stick to handle as an oar.
1888, W.B. Woodgate, Boating, page 71
A person in a crew
(plural: crew) A member of the crew of a vessel or plant. examples
(art, plural: crew) A worker on a dramatic production who is not part of the cast. examples
(nautical, plural: crew) A member of a ship's company who is not an officer. examples
(sports, rowing, US, uncountable) The sport of competitive rowing. quotations examples
The University of Virginia belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and competes interscholastically in basketball, baseball, crew, cross country, fencing, football, golf, indoor track, lacrosse, polo, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling.
1973, University of Virginia Undergraduate Record
Two Andover classmates, Al Wilson and Al Lindley, both went out for crew in our freshman year at Yale.
1989, Benjamin Spock, Mary Morgan, Spock on Spock, page 71
third-person singular simple present crews, present participle crewing, simple past and past participle crewed
(transitive and intransitive) To be a member of a vessel's crew examples
To be a member of a work or production crew examples
To supply workers or sailors for a crew quotations examples
The seafood companies crewed huge trawlers with new fishermen, many of whom were fish-plant workers, since much of the work on board a modern trawler is fish processing.
1997, Mark Kurlansky, Cod, page 182
Steele crewed the boat with men from his own regiment and volunteers from John Wood's detachment.
2003, Kirk C. Jenkins, The Battle Rages Higher, page 42
(nautical) To do the proper work of a sailor examples
(nautical) To take on, recruit (new) crew quotations examples
The two ships will be crewing in the latter half of September.
1967 January, “Tampa”, in The Pilot, page 30
(Britain, archaic) simple past of crow (“make the characteristic sound of a rooster”). quotations
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood beforeThe Tavern shouted — "Open then the Door!You know how little while we have to stay,And, once departed, may return no more."
1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1
(Britain, dialectal) A pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs quotations examples
Between the shippon and the pig-crew, with the wind blowing over from the vegetable ground.
2004, Gillian Cross, On the Edge, page 7
The Manx shearwater. examples