the men and women who man a vehicle (ship, aircraft, etc.)
"The entire crew worked tirelessly to bring the damaged plane back to safety."
an organized group of workmen
"The construction crew arrived early to finish the foundation before the rain started."
the team of men manning a racing shell
"The coxswain shouted for the crew to pull in unison as they crested the final hill on the river."
A group of people together
"We spotted a lone crew gliding effortlessly over the churning waves near the coast."
Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.
A pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs
The Manx shearwater.
In plain English: A crew is a group of people who work together on a specific task, like the team that cleans a ship or flies an airplane.
"The flight crew announced that the plane would land soon."
Usage: When referring to people, crew means the group of workers operating a vehicle or handling tasks on a ship. Do not use this word to describe the Manx shearwater bird, which has its own specific scientific name.
serve as a crew member on
"She plans to spend her summer serving as a crew member on a cargo ship in the Pacific."
To be a member of a vessel's crew
"The old farmer forgot to wake his chickens, so he decided to crew them instead."
simple past tense of crow (“make the characteristic sound of a rooster”).
In plain English: To crew means to help someone do something, usually by giving them a hand with a task.
"The old farmer said he could tell by the way his chickens crew that a storm was coming."
Usage: The verb crew simply means to make the loud crowing sound of a rooster and is almost exclusively used in its past tense form, "crewed." You should not use it as a present-tense command or for any other meaning unrelated to roosters.
A habitational surname, from Welsh.
"The genealogy book listed Crew as a habitational surname derived from Wales for my great-grandfather."
The word crew comes from the Old French creue, which originally meant a military reinforcement or a group of recruits. It entered English in this sense to describe a team of people working together under a single leader.