Crawl in small wood by lake (6)
I believe the answer is:
grovel
'crawl' is the definition.
('grovel' can be a synonym of 'crawl')
'small wood by lake' is the wordplay.
'small wood' becomes 'grove' (I've seen this before).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'lake' becomes 'l'.
'grove'+'l'='GROVEL'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for grovel that I've seen before include "Humble oneself in supplication" , "Cower, abase oneself" , "Show extreme humility" , "Display abject humility" , "Behave obsequiously in fear or servitude" .)