crabwise en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree English crab Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *wéydos Proto-Indo-European *weyd-s-ós Proto-Germanic *wīsaz Proto-Germanic *-wīsaz Proto-West Germanic *-wīs Old English -wīs Middle English -wis English -wise English crabwise From crab + -wise.
Meanings
- (not-comparable) In the manner of a crab; sideways.
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(figuratively, not-comparable) Incidental.
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.
2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 788: