[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.
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Ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep.
--Milton.
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2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from
unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
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The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail,
Unwillingly to school. --Shak.
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Like a guilty thing, I creep. --Tennyson.
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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.
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The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of
argument. --Locke.
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Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and
lead captive silly women. --2. Tim. iii.
6.
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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.
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5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility;
to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.
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To come as humbly as they used to creep. --Shak.
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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.
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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.
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8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a
submarine cable.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Creep \Creep\, n.
1. The act or process of creeping.
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2. A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by
the creeping of insects.
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A creep of undefinable horror. --Blackwood's
Mag.
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Out of the stillness, with gathering creep,
Like rising wind in leaves. --Lowell.
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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.
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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]
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.