verb, crept, creep⋅ing, noun | 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. |
| 12. | Archaic. to creep along or over. |
| 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.
|
| 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. |
| 22. | make one's flesh creep, to be frightening or repellent; cause one to experience uneasiness: The eerie stories made our flesh creep. |

crept (krěpt) v. Past tense and past participle of creep. |
creep
|