Creep definition | Dictionary.com

creep

[kreep]

verb, crept, creep⋅ing, noun

–verb (used without object)

1.	to move slowly with the body close to the ground, as a reptile or an insect, or a person on hands and knees.

2.	to approach slowly, imperceptibly, or stealthily (often fol. by up): We crept up and peeked over the wall.

3.	to move or advance slowly or gradually: The automobile crept up the hill. Time just seems to creep along on these hot summer days.

4.	to sneak up behind someone or without someone's knowledge (usually fol. by up on): The prisoners crept up on the guard and knocked him out.

5.	to enter or become evident inconspicuously, gradually, or insidiously (often fol. by in or into:) The writer's personal bias occasionally creeps into the account.

6.	to move or behave timidly or servilely.

7.	to grow along the ground, a wall, etc., as a plant.

8.	to advance or develop gradually so as to infringe on or supplant something else: creeping inflation; creeping socialism.

9.	to slip, slide, or shift gradually; become displaced.

10.	(of a metal object) to become deformed, as under continuous loads or at high temperatures.

11.	Nautical. to grapple (usually fol. by for): The ships crept for their anchor chains.

–verb (used with object)

12.	Archaic. to creep along or over.

–noun

13.	an act or instance of creeping.

14.	Slang. a boring, disturbingly eccentric, painfully introverted, or obnoxious person.

15.	Slang. an intelligence or counterintelligence agent; spy.

16.

Geology.

a.	the gradual movement downhill of loose soil, rock, gravel, etc.; solifluction.

b.	the slow deformation of solid rock resulting from constant stress applied over long periods.

17.	Mechanics. the gradual, permanent deformation of a body produced by a continued application of heat or stress.

18.	a grappling iron; grapnel.

19.	Firearms. the slack in a trigger mechanism before it releases the firing pin.

20.	creep feeder.

21.	the creeps, Informal. a sensation of horror, fear, disgust, etc., suggestive of the feeling induced by something crawling over the skin: That horror movie gave me the creeps.

—Idiom

22.	make one's flesh creep, to be frightening or repellent; cause one to experience uneasiness: The eerie stories made our flesh creep.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME crepen, OE crēopan; c. D kruipen, ON krjūpa

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Language Translation for : Creep

Spanish:

deslizarse, moverse despacio, *furtivamente, avanzar cautelosamente, *sigilosamente,

German:

schleichen,

Japanese:

そっと近づく

View 29 other languages »

creep (krēp) Pronunciation Key
intr.v. crept (krěpt), creep·ing, creeps

To move with the body close to the ground, as on hands and knees.
1. To move stealthily or cautiously.
2. To move or proceed very slowly: Traffic creeps at that hour.
3. To grow or spread along a surface, rooting at intervals or clinging by means of suckers or tendrils.
4. To grow horizontally under the ground, as the rhizomes of many plants.
Botany
1. To grow or spread along a surface, rooting at intervals or clinging by means of suckers or tendrils.
2. To grow horizontally under the ground, as the rhizomes of many plants.
To slip out of place; shift gradually.
To have a tingling sensation, made by or as if by things moving stealthily: a moan that made my flesh creep.

The act of creeping; a creeping motion or progress.
Slang An annoyingly unpleasant or repulsive person.
A slow flow of metal when under high temperature or great pressure.
A slow change in a characteristic of electronic equipment, such as a decrease in power with continued usage.
Geology The slow movement of rock debris and soil down a weathered slope.
creeps Informal A sensation of fear or repugnance, as if things were crawling on one's skin: That house gives me the creeps.

[Middle English crepen, from Old English crēopan.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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creep

O.E. creopan "to creep" (class II strong verb; past tense creap, pp. cropen), from P.Gmc. *kreupanan, from PIE base *greug-. Use for "despicable person" is 1935, Amer.Eng. slang, perhaps from earlier sense of "sneak thief" (1914). Creepy (1831) refers to the sensation of creeping in the flesh caused by horror or repugnance. Creepy-crawly first recorded 1858. The creeps first attested 1849, in Dickens.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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creep
noun
1.	someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric
2.	a slow longitudinal movement or deformation
3.	a pen that is fenced so that young animals can enter but adults cannot
4.	a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body; "a crawl was all that the injured man could manage"; "the traffic moved at a creep" [syn: crawl]
verb
1.	move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground; "The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed" [syn: crawl]
2.	to go stealthily or furtively; "..stead of sneaking around spying on the neighbor's house" [syn: sneak]
3.	grow or spread, often in such a way as to cover (a surface); "ivy crept over the walls of the university buildings"
4.	show submission or fear [syn: fawn]

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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creep

In addition to the idiom beginning with creep, also see make one's flesh creep; the creeps.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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creep

v. To advance, grow, or multiply inexorably. In hackish usage this verb has overtones of menace and silliness, evoking the creeping horrors of low-budget monster movies.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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Creep

Creep\ (kr[=e]p), v. t. [imp. Crept (kr[e^]pt) (Crope (kr[=o]p), Obs.); p. p. Crept; p. pr. & vb. n. Creeping.] [OE. crepen, creopen, AS. cre['o]pan; akin to D. kruipen, G. kriechen, Icel. krjupa, Sw. krypa, Dan. krybe. Cf. Cripple, Crouch.]

1. To move along the ground, or on any other surface, on the belly, as a worm or reptile; to move as a child on the hands and knees; to crawl.

Ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. --Milton.

2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.

The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school. --Shak.

Like a guilty thing, I creep. --Tennyson.

3. To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self; as, age creeps upon us.

The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. --Locke.

Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. --2. Tim. iii. 6.

4. To slip, or to become slightly displaced; as, the collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying; the quicksilver on a mirror may creep.

5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.

To come as humbly as they used to creep. --Shak.

6. To grow, as a vine, clinging to the ground or to some other support by means of roots or rootlets, or by tendrils, along its length. "Creeping vines." --Dryden.

7. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl; as, the sight made my flesh creep. See Crawl, v. i., 4.

8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.

Creep

Creep\, n. 1. The act or process of creeping.

2. A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects.

A creep of undefinable horror. --Blackwood's Mag.

Out of the stillness, with gathering creep, Like rising wind in leaves. --Lowell.

3. (Mining) A slow rising of the floor of a gallery, occasioned by the pressure of incumbent strata upon the pillars or sides; a gradual movement of mining ground.

CREEP
Committee to Reelect the President

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