Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To stoop, especially with the knees bent.
  • intransitive verb To press the entire body close to the ground with the limbs bent.
  • intransitive verb To bend servilely or timidly; cringe.
  • intransitive verb To bend (the head or knee, for example) low, as in fear or humility.
  • noun The act or posture of bending low or crouching.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cross; a crucifix; the sign of the cross; the cross on a coin, or the coin itself. See cross, n.
  • To bend; stoop low; lie or stoop close to the ground, as an animal in preparing to spring or from fear: as, a dog crouches to his master, a lion crouches in the thicket.
  • To bow or stoop servilely; make slavish obeisance; fawn; cringe.
  • To bend or cause to bend low, as if for concealment, or in fear or abasement.
  • To sign with the cross; bless.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To sign with the cross; to bless.
  • transitive verb To bend, or cause to bend, as in humility or fear.
  • intransitive verb To bend down; to stoop low; to lie close to the ground with the logs bent, as an animal when waiting for prey, or in fear.
  • intransitive verb To bend servilely; to stoop meanly; to fawn; to cringe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A cross.
  • verb obsolete To sign with the cross; bless.
  • verb intransitive To bend down; to stoop low; to lie close to the ground with legs bent, as an animal when waiting for prey, or in fear.
  • verb intransitive To bend servilely; to stoop meanly; to fawn; to cringe.
  • verb intransitive To bend, or cause to bend, as in humility or fear.
  • noun A bent or stooped position.
  • noun A button (of a joypad, joystick or similar device) whose only or main current function is that when it is pressed causes a video game character to crouch.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of bending low with the limbs close to the body
  • verb sit on one's heels
  • verb bend one's back forward from the waist on down

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English crouchen, probably from Old North French *crouchir, to become bent, variant of Old French crochir, from croche, hook; see crochet.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English crouche, cruche, from Old English crūċ ("cross"). Compare Old Saxon krūci ("cross"), Old High German chrūzi ("cross").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English crouchen, crucchen, crouken ("to bend, crouch"), variant of croken ("to bend, crook"), from crok ("crook, hook"), from Old Norse krókr ("hook"), from Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerg- (“wicker, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind, weave”). Compare Middle Dutch krōken ("to crook, curl"). More at crook.

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Examples

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  • CrOUCH

    July 22, 2011