Meaning & use
bar crawl
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableinformal
An evening spent walking from one bar to another, having a drink or two in each.
Grammar: Used with a: go on a bar crawl.
Patterns
- go on a bar crawl
- a bar crawl through a place
We went on a bar crawl through the old town for her birthday.
The charity bar crawl raised money for the hospital.
He woke up late after the bar crawl.
verbintransitiveinformalrare
To go from bar to bar drinking in each one.
Grammar: No object: we bar-crawled all night.
Patterns
- bar crawl through a place
The group bar crawled across the downtown streets.
Students like to bar crawl on the last night of term.
We bar crawled until the last train.
Word forms
| plural | bar crawls |
|---|---|
| third person singular | bar crawls |
| past tense | bar crawled |
| -ing form | bar crawling |
Common combinations
- go on a bar crawl
- Let's go on a bar crawl this Friday.
- organize a bar crawl
- The club organized a bar crawl for new members.
- join a bar crawl
- Tourists can join a guided bar crawl.
- charity bar crawl
- The charity bar crawl visited eight venues.
- holiday bar crawl
- The holiday bar crawl was full of people in costumes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pub crawl
- Pub crawl is the British equivalent and refers to pubs rather than bars.
- pub-hop
- Pub-hop is a lighter, more playful phrase for moving between pubs.
- night out
- Night out is much broader and does not require visiting several bars.
Word family
Commonly confused: bar crawl or pub crawl?
bar crawl vs pub crawl
A pub crawl is the same idea in British English; a bar crawl is the American term.
Practice
What happens on a bar crawl?
Choose one answer.
A bar crawl means moving between several bars. Staying in one place does not fit the word crawl, which suggests moving from place to place.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bar crawl”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.