Fromcrab(“crustacean having five pairs of legs”) +-er(occupational suffix) or +-er(relational noun suffix).
crabber (pluralcrabbers)
- A person who catchescrabs.
1989,National Fisherman, volumes70-71, page26:Many shrimpers complain that thecrabbers place their traps too close together and that they can't go between the traps without snagging their nets.
- (nautical) Aboat used for catching crabs.
1972,Ursula K. Le Guin,The Farthest Shore:In the bright haze of morning they came into Hort Harbor, where a hundred craft were moored or setting forth: fishermen's boats,crabbers, trawlers, trading-ships, two galleys of twenty oars[…]
2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, inThe Guardian[1]:It is standard practice for search and rescue authorities to ask other vessels in the area to assist. Usually, this is done. The weather on the night of 31 December was too atrocious, and when at 11pm the Coast Guard asked thecrabber Ruff & Reddy to head to the scene, its skipper refused, as a skipper has a right to do if he believes conditions to be too treacherous.
a person who catches crabs
a boat used for catching crabs
Fromcrab(“to be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault”) +-er.
crabber (pluralcrabbers)
- A person whofinds fault orcriticizes.
- Synonyms:criticizer;see alsoThesaurus:complainer
