English

Proper noun

Crew

1. A male given name

English

Noun

crew ‎(plural crews)

1. A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, or airplane.

   If you need help, please contact a member of the crew.

   The crews of the two ships got into a fight.

2. (plural: crew) A member of the crew of a vessel or plant.

   One crew died in the accident.

3. (obsolete) Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.
   • Spenser

     There a noble crew / Of lords and ladies stood on every side.

   • Milton

     Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?

4. (nautical, plural: crew) A member of a ship's company who is not an officer.

   The officers and crew assembled on the deck.

   There are quarters for three officers and five crew.

5. (art) The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast.

   There are a lot of carpenters in the crew!

   The crews for different movies would all come down to the bar at night.

6. (art, plural: crew) A worker on a dramatic production who is not part of the cast.

   There were three actors and six crew on the set.

7. A group of people working together on a task.

   The crews competed to cut the most timber.

8. (informal, often derogatory) A close group of friends.

   I'd look out for that whole crew down at Jack's.

9. (often derogatory) A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker.
   • 1861 William Weston Patton, (version of) John Brown's Body

     He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,

     And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;

     They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,

     But his soul is marching on.

   • 1950, Bernard Nicholas Schilling, Conservative England and the Case Against Voltaire, page 266:

     Malignant principles bear fruit in kind and the Revolution did no more than practice what men had been taught by the abandoned crew of philosophers.

10. (informal) A group of people, especially friends or associates.
11. (Scouting) A group of Rovers.
12. (slang, hip-hop) A hip-hop group
    • 2003, Jennifer Guglielmo & Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White?, ISBN 0415934508, page 150:

      We decided we needed another rapper in the crew and spent months looking.

13. (sports, rowing, US, uncountable) The sport of competitive rowing.
    • 1973, University of Virginia Undergraduate Record

      The University of Virginia belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and competes interscholastically in basketball, baseball, crew, cross country, fencing, football, golf, indoor track, lacrosse, polo, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling.

    • 1989, Benjamin Spock & Mary Morgan, Spock on Spock, ISBN 0394578139, page 71:

      Two Andover classmates, Al Wilson and Al Lindley, both went out for crew in our freshman year at Yale.

14. (rowing) A rowing team manning a single shell.
    • 1888, W.B. Woodgate, Boating, page 71:

      If a crew feather much under water, it is a good plan to seat them in a row on a bench, and give each man a stick to handle as an oar.

• 

  Crew of a spaceship

• 

  Crew of a rowing shell

• 

  Crew working on a race car

• 

  A hip-hop crew

Synonyms

• (group manning a vessel): ship's company, all hands, complement
• (member of a crew): crewer, member; nautical only: sailor, seaman
• (non-officer ship worker): seaman
• (non-cast dramatic personnel): staff, stagehand
• (group engaged in a task): team, gang
• (social group): clique, gang, pack, crowd, bunch, lot (UK); posse
• (group lumped together): crowd, flock, lot, gang
• (hip-hop group): posse, band, group

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

crew ‎(third-person singular simple present crews, present participle crewing, simple past and past participle crewed)

1. (transitive and intransitive) To be a member of a vessel's crew

   We crewed together on a fishing boat last year.

   The ship was crewed by fifty sailors.

2. To be a member of a work or production crew

   The film was crewed and directed by students.

3. To supply workers or sailors for a crew
   • 2003, Kirk C. Jenkins, The Battle Rages Higher, ISBN 0813122813, page 42:

     Steele crewed the boat with men from his own regiment and volunteers from John Wood's detachment.

4. (nautical) To do the proper work of a sailor

   The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.

5. (nautical) To take on, recruit (new) crew
   • 1967, January, Tampa, page 30:

     The two ships will be crewing in the latter half of September.

Derived terms

• crewer
• uncrewed
• crew up

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

crew

1. (Britain, archaic) simple past tense of crow To have made the characteristic sound of a rooster.

   It was still dark when the cock crew.

Etymology 3

Probably of Brythonic origin.

Noun

crew ‎(plural crews)

1. (Britain, dialectal) A pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs
   • 2004, Gillian Cross, On the Edge, ISBN 0192753711, page 7:

     Between the shippon and the pig-crew, with the wind blowing over from the vegetable ground.

Etymology 4

Noun

crew ‎(plural crews)

1. The Manx shearwater.

See also

• Appendix:Dictionary notes/crew
• Crew on Wikipedia.Wikipedia