Word Confusion: Crawl versus Kraal

Plural for the noun: crawls
Gerund: crawling

Third person present verb: crawls
Past tense or past participle: crawled
Present participle: crawling

Plural for the noun: kraals
Gerund: kraaling

Third person present verb: kraals
Past tense or past participle: kraaled
Present participle: kraaling

Archaic alternate spelling: craal (noun and verb), kraul (noun)

• A slow rate of movement, typically that of a vehicle

[Swimming, Water Sports, Surfing; a.k.a. Australian crawl, front crawl] a stroke in which the feet are kicked like paddles while the arms reach forward and pull back through the water

[Film, Television] A strip or band running horizontally or vertically across the bottom of a computer or television screen, within which news headlines, public service announcements, and advertisements are continuously scrolled

A social activity that consists of going to a series of related establishments one after the other

Verb, intransitive:
[Of a person] Move forward on the hands and knees or by dragging the body close to the ground

• [Of an insect or small animal] Move slowly along a surface
• [Of a vehicle] Move at an unusually slow pace
• Swim using the crawl
• [Technical; of paint or other liquid] Move after application to form an uneven layer over the surface below

[Informal] Behave obsequiously or ingratiatingly in the hope of gaining someone’s favor

[be crawling with] Be covered or crowded with insects or people, to an extent that is disgusting or objectionable

Verb, transitive:
[Computing; of a program] Systematically visit (a number of web pages) in order to create an index of data

Noun:
[South African] A traditional African village of huts, typically enclosed by a fence

• [North American; historical] Another term for homestead, an area of public land in the West granted to any US citizen willing to settle on and farm the land for at least five years
• An enclosure for cattle or sheep

[Archaic] A pen in shallow water, as for confining fish or turtles

Verb, transitive:
Drive (cattle or sheep) into an enclosure

He reduced his speed to a crawl.

She could do the crawl and so many other strokes.

A crawl scrolled across the bottom of the screen, keeping us informed of the changing weather.

Join us. We’re going on a bar crawl.

Helen wants to do a museum crawl while we’re in New York.

Verb, intransitive:
They crawled out from under the table.

The tiny spider was crawling up Nicky’s arm.

The traffic was crawling along.

I turned without stopping and crawled back to the deep end.

Glazes can crawl away from a crack in the piece.

Don’t come crawling back to me later when you realize your mistake.

The place was crawling with soldiers.

He makes my skin crawl.

Verb, transitive:
Its automated software robots crawl websites, grabbing copies of pages to index.

“The African kraal can be a positive metaphor of a liberating and empowering church in an urban context of poverty” (Banda).

“The kraal model is preferred because its attitude towards the poor emphasizes empowering them to be responsible and actively contribute in the economic life of the society” (Banda).

Noun:
They entered the kraal in triumph with meat for all.

Drive the cattle into the kraal.

Put the turtle in the kraal, Mustafa.

The kraal is under the immediate rule of its headman, who is a patriarch responsible for the good behavior of all its members.

The royal kraal for a considerable period was at Ulundi, in the valley of the White Umfolosi.

Verb, transitive:
They kraal their sheep every night.

Twenty-four cattle from this farm have been kraaled on Wallasey (next door) until the owner of the cattle pays compensation.

We responded to losses by jackal predation by changing to an indigenous breed (Damaras flock better than Dorpers and resist predators better), bringing heavily pregnant ewes in to a safe camp, and kraaling our animals at night.

Already with portable electric fencing we will be kraaling the cattle overnight on the croplands to improve fertility of the lands.