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tree creeper

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tree creeper

–noun
See under creeper (def. 6).

Origin:
1805–15

creep⋅er

[kree-per]
–noun
1. a person or thing that creeps.
2. Botany. a plant that grows upon or just beneath the surface of the ground, or upon any other surface, sending out rootlets from the stem, as ivy and couch grass.
3. Often, creepers. a one-piece garment for an infant, the lower portion resembling briefs and having snaps or buttons across the crotch for convenience in diapering.
4. Chiefly Northeastern U.S. a spiked iron plate worn on the shoe to prevent slipping on ice, rock, etc.
5. Also called cradle. Automotive. a flat framework on casters, on which a mechanic lies while working under an automobile or the like.
6. Ornithology. any of various birds that creep or climb about on trees, esp. of the family Certhiidae, as Certhia americana (brown creeper or tree creeper), of the Northern Hemisphere.
7. a domestic fowl having malformed, short legs, due to a genetic defect.
8. a grappling device for dragging a river, lake, etc.

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME crepere, OE crēopere. See creep, -er 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: creep·er
Pronunciation: 'krE-p&r
Function: noun
1 : a genetic anomaly of the domestic fowl marked by shortening and thickeningof the long bones in the heterozygote and completely lethal when homozygous
2 : CREEPER FOWL
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Encyclopedia

tree creeper

any of a dozen species of small slender birds, with downcurved bills, that spiral up tree trunks in search of insects. They are variously classified in the families Certhiidae and Climacteridae.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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