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An animal that crawls, or moves on its belly, as snakes,, or by means of small, short legs, as lizards, and the like. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live. Cowper.

To make irregular, crooked, or unmeaning marks; to scribble; to scrawl. David . . . scrabbled on the doors of the gate. 1. Sam. xxi. 13.

To write without care, elegance, or value; to scrawl. If Mævius scribble in Apollo's spite. Pope.

Hence, to crawl; to sneak. [Obs.] There I 'll shug in and get a noble countenance. Ford.

s; also, covered or daubed with slime; yielding, or abounding in, slime. Slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea. Coleridge.

To crawl like a snake.

Crawling or creeping like a worm; hence, insinuating; sophistical. "Vermiculate questions." Bacon. "Vermiculate logic." R. Choate.

A creeping or a crawling animal of any kind or size, as a serpent, caterpillar, snail, or the like. [Archaic] There came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. When the men of the country saw the worm hang on his hand, they said, This man must needs be a murderer. Tyndale (Acts xxviii. 3, 4). 'T is slander, Wh…