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crabbed

adjective /kɹæbd/

  1. Bad-tempered or cantankerous.

    […]O, she is / Ten times more gentle than her father's crabb'd, / And he's composed of harshness.

  2. Cramped, bent.

    Old Winter, with a rugged beard as grey As the long moss upon the apple-tree; […]

    A wrinkled crabbed man they picture thee,
  3. Crowded together and difficult to read.

  4. Pointed at an angle to the runway during approach and landing to compensate for a crosswind.

    Unlike most aircraft, the B-52's fully-steerable landing gear allows it to land crabbed and stay crabbed throughout rollout without destroying its tires.

Where it comes from

From Middle English crabbed; equivalent to crab + -ed.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry crabbed (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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