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crow

nounadjectiveverbverbnounnouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//kɹəʊ//
  • United States//kɹoʊ//

A bird, usually black, of the genus Corvus, having a strong conical beak, with projecting bristles; it has a harsh, croaking call.

noun

  1. 1

    A bird, usually black, of the genus Corvus, having a strong conical beak, with projecting bristles; it has a harsh, croaking call.

    Gaslark in his splendour on the golden stairs saying adieu to those three captains and their matchless armament foredoomed to dogs and crows on Salapanta Hills.

  2. 2

    Any of various dark-coloured nymphalid butterflies of the genus Euploea.

  3. 3

    A bar of iron with a beak, crook or claw; a bar of iron used as a lever; a crowbar.

    He approached the humble tomb in which Antonia reposed. He had provided himself with an iron crow and a pick-axe: but this precaution was unnecessary.

    Watt might have broken the door down, with an axe, or a crow, or a small charge of explosive, but this might have aroused Erskine's suspicions, and Watt did not want that.

  4. 4

    archaicSomeone who keeps watch while their associates commit a crime; a lookout.

    “Ay,” put in a young man, who had the reputation of being the smartest “crow” in London—“‘fishers of men,’ as the parson says.”

    By nine o'clock on the evening of November 12, 1854, Pierce had his confederates in their places. The crow, Agar's woman, lounged across the street from the Trent mansion.

  5. 5

    historicalA gangplank (corvus) used by the Ancient Roman navy to board enemy ships.

  6. 6

    The mesentery of an animal.

  7. 7

    An ill-tempered and obstinate woman, or one who otherwise has features resembling the bird; a harpy.

    But it helps a man along to have a wife he can be proud of. Suppose you marry some old crow. People point at her and ask, 'Who is that death's head yonder?'

    (Mrs. Meany to Woody, from a window) "I don't care! I'm not running a pet shop." "Well it looks like one with an old crow in the window!"

  8. 8

    slangA black person.

  9. 9

    slangThe emblem of an eagle, a sign of military rank.

    A young petty officer that must have just received his “crow” (a single chevron, with an eagle over it) was showing off to several seamen.

    The young man had been threatened with loss of his third class rank, his “crow,” the eagle in a petty officer's sleeve insignia.

Etymology

From Middle English crowe, from Old English crāwe, from Proto-West Germanic *krāā, from Proto-Germanic *krēǭ (compare West Frisian krie, Dutch kraai, German Krähe), from *krēaną (“to crow”). See below. The verb is a back-formation from crowbar.

adjective

  1. 1

    Dark black, the color of a crow; crow-black.

    "Though her crow hair is lovely and wavy, she loathes it and craves yellow locks. Since she saw Hugh, she's given me no peace.” Sheffield's square , good-looking face shaped a grimace.

    […] only her crow hair could be seen. Her appearance could not be seen as she anxiously called out, "Mother ..." The setting sun cast a dim yellow light on the interior of the house. The woman lay on her back and looked up at the beams overhead[…]

verb

  1. 1

    To use a crowbar, wedge, or other implement to attempt to open a surface by leveraging force on the opposite end of the tool to pry off the connection between the two surfaces.

    If you wanna get inside, you're gonna have to crow open that door.

verb

  1. 1

    To make the shrill sound characteristic of a rooster; to make a sound in this manner, either in gaiety, joy, pleasure, or defiance.

    Yet once me thought it [the ghost of Hamlet's father] was about to ſpeake, / And lifted vp his head to motion, / Like as he would ſpeake, but euen the / The morning cocke crew lowd, and in all haſte / It ſhrunke in haſte away, and vaniſhed / Our ſight.

    This is the Cock that crowed in the Morn[.]

    'You are that Psyche' Cyril said again / 'The mother of the sweetest little maid, / That ever crow'd for kisses.'

    Hearing the miner's footsteps, the baby would put up his arms and crow.

  2. 2

    To shout in exultation or defiance; to brag.

    He’s been crowing all day about winning the game of cards.

    Touting its sponsorship of local engineering and sustainability programs, Amazon crows about such “investments” as its dog park, playing fields, art installations, and Buckyball-reminiscent domical gardens.

    Another of my favorite dishes, the Asian chicken salad, was inspired by a skit by comedian Margaret Cho (“This is not the salad of my people…” she crows).

  3. 3

    To test the reed of a double reed instrument by placing the reed alone in the mouth and blowing it.

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English crowen, from Old English crāwan (past tense crēow, past participle crāwen), from Proto-West Germanic *krāan, from Proto-Germanic *krēaną, from imitative Proto-Indo-European *gerH- (“to cry hoarsely”). The noun is from Middle English crowe, from the verb. Compare Dutch kraaien, German krähen, Lithuanian gróti, Russian гра́ять (grájatʹ)). Related to croak.

noun

  1. 1

    The cry or call of a rooster or a cockerel, especially as heard at sunrise.

noun

  1. 1

    Variant of croAlternative spelling of cro (“marijuana”).

    My young boys hop out the ride in a crop yard searching, tryna find this crow

Forms

plural
crows
past tense
crowed, crew
past participle
crowed, crew, crown
present participle
crowing
third person singular
crows
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).