crew Hear it!

crew¹ Definition

crew (kro̵̅o̅)

noun

  1. a group of people associating or classed together; company, set, gang, etc.
  2. a group of people working together, usually under the direction of a foreman or leader a road crew, gun crew
    1. all of a ship's personnel, usually excepting the officers
    2. on a small sailboat, the person or persons who assist the helmsman, as by handling the sails
  3. aircrew
    1. a rowing team for a racing shell, usually of two, four, six, or eight oarsmen with or without a coxswain
    2. the sport of rowing racing shells
  4. Archaic an organized band of armed men

Etymology: ME creue, increase, growth < OFr < pp. of creistre, to grow < L crescere: see crescent

transitive verb, intransitive verb

to serve (on) as the crew or a crew member

crew¹ Related Forms

crew·man noun pl. -·men

crew² Definition

crew (kro̵̅o̅)

intransitive verb

Chiefly Brit. crow (sense )

crew Synonyms

crew

n.

  1. The personnel of a ship or aircraft

    seafarers, sailors, hands, seamen, able seamen, ship's complement, full complement, ship's company, mariners, sea dogs, matelots (French), gobs*, Jacks*, manjacks*, shellbacks*, aircrew*, flight crew. *

  2. A group of people organized to do a particular job

    company, troupe, squad; see organization 3, team 2.

crew Usage Examples

Object

yacht: If you prefer to stay on land at night you can charter a crewed yacht for a day.

Converse of object

assemble: The lifeboat crew assembled but fortunately the 2 children were found before it was necessary to launch the lifeboats.

Adjective modifier

  • motley: Who dares take on the spirits of the motley crew?
  • loco: Someone had omitted to ask the loco crew to take it easy.
  • experienced: Our experienced flight crew take regular 6 monthly flight checks in a flight simulator and in real aircraft.
  • winning: The captain of the winning crew was Flt Lt G E Norton, and his navigator was Flt Lt H S Pinder.
  • intrepid: What makes the book so funny are the tales and escapades along the way encountered by Eric and his intrepid crew.
  • entire: An evacuation message can be sent to incident teams or the entire crew.

Modifies a noun

  • member: Crew members of the Happy Fellow suffered personal injury.
  • neck: Mine was for a crew neck so I cut a template from cardboard - a half circle 7 " across and 4 " deep.

Noun used with modifier

  • ambulance: At the scene, ambulance crews treated four patients in total.
  • cabin: Cabin crew have to be prepared to work on any day of the year, at any time of the day.
  • lifeboat: A number of the lifeboat crew suffered minor injuries.
  • camera: Outside the Body Zone there were two camera crews.
  • fire: Fire crews from Wallasey fire station, Wirral were alerted to the fire at around 4am last night.
  • bomber: You would be forgiven for thinking a fringe play about a World War II bomber crew would have a fairly eclectic take on events.

Possessives

  • landing-master: The landing-master's crew were occupied in assisting the millwrights in laying the railways to hand.
  • ship: Once the island is reached, sides are chosen - the mutinous pirates against the ship's crew.

Preposition: of

  • astronaut: The Challenger blew up 73 seconds after lift off and it killed the crew of seven astronauts.
  • ship: On the church wall is a memorial plaque to the crew of a Greek ship lost in a storm in the twenties.

Browse dictionary entries near crew

  1. crevice
  2. crevasse
  3. crevalle
  4. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
  5. cretonne
  6. cretinism
  7. cretin
  8. Crete
  9. cretaceous
  10. cresylic
  1. crew cut
  2. crew neck
  3. crewel
  4. crewelwork
  5. cri de coeur
  6. crib
  7. crib biting
  8. crib death
  9. cribbage
  10. cribbing