creep

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See also: CREEP

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English crepen, from Old English crēopan (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-West Germanic *kreupan, from Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to twist, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with West Frisian krippe, krûpe, West Frisian crjippa (“to creep”), Low German krepen and krupen, Dutch kruipen (“to creep, crawl”), Middle High German kriefen (“to creep”), Danish krybe (“to creep”), Norwegian krype (“to creep”), Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”), Icelandic krjúpa (“to stoop”).

The noun is derived from the verb.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: krēp, IPA(key): /kɹiːp/, [kʰɹiːp]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːp

Verb[edit]

creep (third-person singular simple present creeps, present participle creeping, simple past crept or creeped or (archaic) crope, past participle crept or creeped or (archaic) cropen)

  1. (intransitive) To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
    Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
    • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit:
      One evening, while the Rabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro between his velvet paws in the grass, he saw two strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near him.
    • 1994, “On the Huai River”, in A Drifting Boat: An Anthology of Chinese Zen Poetry‎[1], Fredonia, NY: White Pine Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 138:
      Reed tips face the dawn
      shivering in the autumn wind
      At P'u-k'ou the winter tide
      has not yet come
      Sunrise on the sandy bank
      pocked with narrow caves
      Pale frogs and dark crabs
      creep without end.
    Synonym: crawl
  2. (intransitive, of plants) To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
  3. (intransitive) To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
    He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
    • 1961 November, “More accelerations in the French winter timetables”, in Trains Illustrated, page 670:
      Electrification of the Eastern Region main line from Strasbourg, incidentally, is steadily creeping nearer to Paris, and is now complete as far as Château Thierry, 59 miles away; [...].
    • 1967, Sleigh, Barbara, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 84:
      She crept up the stairs, keeping well into the side because she knew they were less likely to creak this way.
  4. (intransitive) To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
    Prices have been creeping up all year.
  5. To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.
    Old age creeps upon us.
    • 1706, John Locke, Of the Conduct of the Understanding‎[2], Fallacies:
      […] guard his understanding from being imposed on by the willful or at least undesigned sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument.
    • 1966 December, Stephen Stills, “For What It's Worth”‎[3], performed by Buffalo Springfield:
      Paranoia strikes deep / Into your life it will creep / It starts when you're always afraid / Step out of line, the man come and take you away
  6. To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
    The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.
    The quicksilver on a mirror may creep.
  7. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
    A creeping sycophant.
  8. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
    The sight made my flesh creep.
  9. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
  10. (intransitive, African-American Vernacular, slang) To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.
    • 2000, “It Wasn't Me”, performed by Shaggy:
      Honey came in and she caught me red-handed / Creeping with the girl next door / Picture this we were both butt naked / Banging on the bathroom floor
    • 2003, “I Don't Wanna Know”, performed by Mario Winans:
      I don't wanna know / If you're playin' me, keep it on the low / 'Cause my heart can't take it anymore / And if you're creepin', please don't let it show
    • 2016, Sherika Moore, Been Hustlen, →ISBN:
      "Now you want the nigga out 'cause he creeping with his baby momma."

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

to move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground — see crawl

Noun[edit]

creep (countable and uncountable, plural creeps)

  1. The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails).
  2. A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
  3. A slight displacement of an object; the slight movement of something.
  4. (uncountable) The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively.
    christmas creep
    feature creep
    instruction creep
    mission creep
  5. (publishing) In sewn books, the tendency of pages on the inside of a quire to stand out farther than those on the outside of it.
  6. (materials science) An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
  7. (geology) The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.
  8. (informal, derogatory) Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric.
    Synonym: weirdo
    • 1992, “Creep”, in Pablo Honey, performed by Radiohead:
      But I'm a creep / I'm a weirdo / What the hell am I doing here? / I don't belong here
  9. (informal, derogatory) A frightening and/or disconcerting person, especially one who gives the speaker chills.
    Stop following me, you creep!
  10. (agriculture) A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.

Derived terms[edit]

creeping movement
gradual expansion or proliferation, negatively
frightening and/or disconcerting person
others terms (unsorted by one lazy Wiktionary)

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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