creep

[ kreep ]

/ krip /

verb (used without object), crept, creep·ing.

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

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

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

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

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

to move or behave timidly or servilely.

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

to advance or develop gradually so as to infringe on or supplant something else.

Slang.

to flirt with or make persistent sexual advances toward someone (often followed by on): He creeps on all the women he meets.
to cheat on one’s sexual partner: He caught his wife creepin' with the guy who lives next-door.

Slang. to follow someone persistently or stealthily, as on a social media website (often followed by on): He spends a lot of time creeping on her Facebook profile.

Slang. to suddenly intrude into someone’s photograph as it is being taken: Who’s that creeping in the background of the picture?

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

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

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

verb (used with object), crept, creep·ing.

Slang. to follow persistently or stealthily, especially online: I’ve been creeping her blog and found some great recipes.

Archaic. to creep along or over.

noun

an act or instance of creeping: It seems as if time has slowed to a creep.

Slang. an obnoxious, disturbingly eccentric, deviant, or painfully introverted person.

Slang. an intelligence or counterintelligence agent; spy.

Slang. creeper(def 10).

a gradual or inconspicuous increase, advance, change, or development: Avoid jargon creep in your writing. We are seeing the steady creep of consumerism.

Geology.

the gradual movement downhill of loose soil, rock, gravel, etc.; solifluction.
the slow deformation of solid rock resulting from constant stress applied over long periods.

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

a grappling iron; grapnel.

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

creep feeder.

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.

Idioms for creep

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

Origin of creep

before 900; Middle English crepen, Old English crēopan; cognate with Dutch kruipen, Old Norse krjūpa

SYNONYMS FOR creep

3 inch, crawl, dawdle, poke.

synonym study for creep

1. See crawl¹.

historical usage of creep

The verb creep comes from Old English crēopan, a strong verb (that is, a verb from a root that has vowel changes in its inflectional forms, as sing, sang, sung ).
The four principal parts of crēopan are crēopan (present infinitive and the dictionary headword), crēap (past tense singular), crupon (past tense plural), and cropen (past participle). The verb has very many bewildering dialect forms, variants, and spellings in Old English and later in Middle English.
Around 1300 we see the first appearance of inflections of weak verbs (also called regular verbs, with no vowel changes), like love, loved, loved, initially in the past tense. William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible (1534) has the past participle crept, replacing the strong form cropen. Some descendants of the Old English strong verb lived on in certain British and American dialects, such as the past tense crope, which shows up in the speech of runaway slave Jim in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884): “I crope out, all a-tremblin’.”
The slang meaning of the noun “an obnoxious, disturbingly eccentric person” arose in the late 19th century, connected with the now obsolete meaning “a person who creeps along; a sneak.”

OTHER WORDS FROM creep

creep·ing·ly, adverb non·creep·ing, adjective out·creep, verb (used with object), out·crept, out·creep·ing. un·creep·ing, adjective

Words nearby creep

creed, creek, creek war, creel, creeley, creep, creep feeder, creep up on, creep-feed, creep-feeding, creep-grazing

British Dictionary definitions for creep up on

creep

/ (kriːp) /

verb creeps, creeping or crept (intr)

to crawl with the body near to or touching the ground

to move slowly, quietly, or cautiously

to act in a servile way; fawn; cringe

to move or slip out of place, as from pressure or wear

(of plants) to grow along the ground or over rocks, producing roots, suckers, or tendrils at intervals

(of a body or substance) to become permanently deformed as a result of an applied stress, often when combined with heating

to develop gradually creeping unrest

to have the sensation of something crawling over the skin

(of metals) to undergo slow plastic deformation

noun

the act of creeping or a creeping movement

slang a person considered to be obnoxious or servile

the continuous permanent deformation of a body or substance as a result of stress or heat

geology the gradual downwards movement of loose rock material, soil, etc, on a slope

a slow relative movement of two adjacent parts, structural components, etc

slow plastic deformation of metals

Word Origin for creep

Old English crēopan; related to Old Frisian kriāpa, Old Norse krjūpa, Middle Low German krūpen

Idioms and Phrases with creep up on (1 of 2)

creep up on

Advance slowly or stealthily, as in The cat crept up on the bird, or Autumn is creeping up on us. This expression is recorded in slightly different form— creep in or creep on—from the 15th century on. One of the Hymns to the Virgin and Christ (c. 1430) has “Now age has cropen [crept] up on me ful stille.”

Idioms and Phrases with creep up on (2 of 2)

creep

In addition to the idiom beginning with creep

creep up on

also see:

make one's flesh creep
the creeps

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

creep

verb (used without object), crept, creep·ing.

verb (used with object), crept, creep·ing.

noun

Idioms for creep

Origin of creep

SYNONYMS FOR creep

synonym study for creep

historical usage of creep

OTHER WORDS FROM creep

Words nearby creep

British Dictionary definitions for creep up on

verb creeps, creeping or crept (intr)

noun

Word Origin for creep

Idioms and Phrases with creep up on (1 of 2)

Idioms and Phrases with creep up on (2 of 2)

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

creep

verb (used without object), crept, creep·ing.

verb (used with object), crept, creep·ing.

noun

Idioms for creep

Origin of creep

SYNONYMS FOR creep

synonym study for creep

historical usage of creep

OTHER WORDS FROM creep

Words nearby creep

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []) .push({}); British Dictionary definitions for creep up on

verb creeps, creeping or crept (intr)

noun

Word Origin for creep

Idioms and Phrases with creep up on (1 of 2)

Idioms and Phrases with creep up on (2 of 2)

British Dictionary definitions for creep up on