English

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Etymology

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From crab +‎ -wise.

Adjective

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crabwise (not comparable)

  1. In the manner of a crab; sideways.
  2. (figuratively) Incidental.
    • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 788:
      Quite apart from their crabwise and often reluctant embrace of religious toleration for a wide variety of religious dissidence, both countries achieved a wider distribution of prosperity than any other part of seventeenth-century Europe.

Adverb

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crabwise (not comparable)

  1. In the manner of a crab; sideways.