crew

Multiple Entries:
  crew    crow  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crew1

▶noun [treated as sing. or pl.]

• 1 a group of people who work on and operate a ship, boat, aircraft, or train.

  ■ such a group other than the officers.

• 2 informal, often derogatory a group of people.

▶verb provide with a crew.

■ act as a member of a crew.

– derivatives
crewman noun (pl. crewmen).

– origin ME, in sense ‘band of soldiers’: from OFr. creue ‘augmentation, increase’, fem. past part. of croistre ‘grow’, from L. crescere.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crew2

past of crow2.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crow1

▶noun

• 1 a large perching bird with mostly glossy black plumage, a heavy bill, and a raucous voice. [Corvus corone (carrion crow) and related species, family Corvidae.]

• 2 informal an old or ugly woman.

– phrases
as the crow flies in a straight line across country.
eat crow N. Amer. informal be humiliated by having to admit one's defeats or mistakes.

– origin OE crāwe, of W. Gmc origin; rel. to crow2.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crow2

▶verb (past crowed or crew)

• 1 (of a cock) utter its characteristic loud cry.

• 2 express great pride or triumph, especially in a tone of gloating satisfaction.

▶noun

• 1 the cry of a cock.

• 2 a sound expressing great pride or triumph.

– origin OE crāwan, of W. Gmc origin, rel. to crow1; ult. imitative.