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.
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 créopan; c. D kruipen, ON krjūpa]
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.
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"
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.
Crawl\ (kr[add]l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Crawled (kr[add]ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Crawling.] [Dan. kravle, or Icel. krafla, to paw, scrabble with the hands; akin to Sw. kr[aum]la to crawl; cf. LG. krabbeln, D. krabbelen to scratch.]1. To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and knees; to creep. A worm finds what it searches after only by feeling, as it crawls from one thing to another. --Grew. 2. Hence, to move or advance in a feeble, slow, or timorous manner. He was hardly able to crawl about the room. --Arbuthnot. The meanest thing that crawl'd beneath my eyes. --Byron. 3. To advance slowly and furtively; to insinuate one's self; to advance or gain influence by servile or obsequious conduct. Secretly crawling up the battered walls. --Knolles. Hath crawled into the favor of the king. --Shak. Absurd opinions crawl about the world. --South. 4. To have a sensation as of insect creeping over the body; as, the flesh crawls. See Creep, v. i., 7.
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.
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