[syn: fawn, crawl, creep, cringe, cower, grovel]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Creep \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.
[1913 Webster]
Ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from
unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
[1913 Webster]
The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail,
Unwillingly to school. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Like a guilty thing, I creep. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of
argument. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and
lead captive silly women. --2. Tim. iii.
6.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility;
to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.
[1913 Webster]
To come as humbly as they used to creep. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a
submarine cable.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Creep \Creep\, n.
1. The act or process of creeping.
[1913 Webster]
2. A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by
the creeping of insects.
[1913 Webster]
A creep of undefinable horror. --Blackwood's
Mag.
[1913 Webster]
Out of the stillness, with gathering creep,
Like rising wind in leaves. --Lowell.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Mining) A slow rising of the floor of a gallery,
occasioned by the pressure of incumbent strata upon the
pillars or sides; a gradual movement of mining ground.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
creep
n 1: someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric [syn: creep,
weirdo, weirdie, weirdy, spook]
2: a slow longitudinal movement or deformation
3: 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, crawling,
creep, creeping]
v 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, creep]
2: to go stealthily or furtively; "..stead of sneaking around
spying on the neighbor's house" [syn: sneak, mouse,
creep, pussyfoot]
3: grow or spread, often in such a way as to cover (a surface);
"ivy crept over the walls of the university buildings"
4: show submission or fear [syn: fawn, crawl, creep,
cringe, cower, grovel]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
138 Moby Thesaurus words for "creep":
SOB, all fours, amble, andante, bastard, bend the knee, bootlick,
bow, bow and scrape, bugger, claudicate, claudication, couch,
cower, crawl, crawling, creeping, cringe, crouch, dead march,
dogtrot, drag, drag along, drag on, drag out, fart, fawn,
feel creepy, feel funny, flatter, footpace, funeral march,
go dead slow, go on, go on tiptoe, go slow, grovel, gumshoe,
gumshoeing, have gooseflesh, have the creeps, heel, hobble, hood,
hooligan, idle, inch, inch along, jerk, jog, jog trot, jog-trot,
kneel, kowtow, lay wait, laze, leisurely gait, lick the dust,
lickspittle, lie in wait, limp, linger, linger on, louse,
lumbering pace, lurk, meanie, mincing steps, mosey, mother,
nightwalk, nightwalking, pad, padding, pill, plod, poke,
poke along, prowl, prowling, pussyfoot, pussyfooting, rack, rat,
saunter, scrabble, scramble, shadow, shamble, shit, shithead,
shitheel, shuffle, shuffle along, sidle, sidling, skulk, slink,
slinking, slither, slouch, slow march, slow motion, snake, snaking,
sneak, sneaking, squirm, stagger along, stalk, steal, steal along,
stealing, stinkard, stinker, stoop, stroll, tarry, tippytoe,
tiptoe, tiptoeing, toadeat, toady, toddle, toddle along,
totter along, traipse, truckle, trudge, turd, waddle, walk,
wear on, wiggle, worm, worm along, worming, wriggle
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
creep
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.