crawling with
Swarming all over
Crawling with describes a place or thing swarming with creatures or people, usually unpleasantly so.
The image is of insects or vermin moving densely across a surface: The kitchen was crawling with ants.
It extends to crowds: The beach was crawling with tourists.
The phrase nearly always carries negative connotations—abundance as infestation.
- swarmingGathering in large numbers
- teemingAbundantly full of
- infestedOverrun by pests
- pest infestationHarmful organisms colonizing space
- overrunSpread throughout uncontrollably
alive · writhing · squirming · insects · maggots · fly larvae · ants · ant colony · bugs · vermin · skin · crawling sensation · creeping · slithering · wriggling · festering · decay · rot
- crowdedcrowded, jam-packed, packed like sardines, crammed, jammed
- fullnessfull, empty, half-full, filled, half-empty
- quantitiessome, many, few, amount, several