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# crabs

«crabs» in Mova's school dictionary: **Sea or shore animals with a hard shell, ten legs and two…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun, plural of «crab» (a crab, crabs); verb «crab» (rare)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Sea or shore animals with a hard shell, ten legs and two big claws that walk sideways. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#m1)

2) The meat of these animals, eaten as food. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science, crabs are crustaceans (like lobsters and shrimps): invertebrates with an outer skeleton (exoskeleton) that they shed as they grow. At the beach, children look for crabs in rock pools — safety: pick them up gently from behind, mind the claws, and put them back where you found them. Phrases: «rock pool crabs», «hermit crabs», «walk like a crab», «crab legs».

### examples

- We found three little crabs in the rock pool. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x1)
- Crabs walk sideways across the sand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x2)
- Hold crabs from behind so they can't pinch you. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x3)
- Hermit crabs live in empty shells. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x4)
- Crabs shed their hard shells when they grow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x5)
- Put the crabs back in the water before you go home. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x6)
- Dad ordered crab cakes at the seaside restaurant. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x7)
- Crabs are crustaceans, not insects. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x8)
- There grew water-plants, some quite fresh, and others looking sickly, which had water-snakes twining round them, and black crabs clinging to their stems. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/#x9)

### note

Countable: one crab, two crabs; the food is uncountable: «some crab». «Crabby» or «crabbed» means grumpy. Crabs are not fish and not insects; they have ten legs, insects have six. In maths problems, a crab has 10 legs (8 walking legs and 2 claws).

### In the corpora

- [Sally Lightfoot crabs are bright red crabs that leap from rock to rock, eat algae and pick ticks off marine iguanas.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/180-the-galapagos-giant-tortoises-sea-iguanas-darwins-finches-and-tame-sea-lions/16/)
- [Woodlice need damp places and hide under logs and stones; they are crustaceans, related to crabs and shrimps, not insects.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/220-spiders-and-other-minibeasts-under-logs-and-stones/11/)
- [Picture a beach where hermit crabs line up by size beside one big empty shell.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/5/)
- [First, we found crabs in rock pools.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/23-reading-non-fiction-recount-instructions-report/2/)
- [Crabs and other rock-pool creatures pinch to defend themselves; look and let them be.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/458-magpies-geese-ponies-and-swans-animals-that-are-not-your-friends/36/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «crabs» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crabs/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.