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creeps

[kreeps]
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noun (used with a singular verb)
  1. Veterinary Pathology. a disease of the bones in sheep and cattle that causes pain in walking, resulting from a deficiency of phosphorus in the diet.
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Origin of creeps

so called from the effect on the animal's gait; see creep, -s3

creep

[kreep]
verb (used without object), crept, creep·ing.
  1. to move slowly with the body close to the ground, as a reptile or an insect, or a person on hands and knees.
  2. to approach slowly, imperceptibly, or stealthily (often followed by up): We crept up and peeked over the wall.
  3. to move or advance slowly or gradually: The automobile crept up the hill. Time just seems to creep along on these hot summer days.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. to move or behave timidly or servilely.
  7. to grow along the ground, a wall, etc., as a plant.
  8. to advance or develop gradually so as to infringe on or supplant something else.
  9. Slang.
    1. to flirt with or make persistent sexual advances toward someone (often followed by on): He creeps on all the women he meets.
    2. to cheat on one’s sexual partner: He caught his wife creepin' with the guy who lives next-door.
  10. 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.
  11. Slang. to suddenly intrude into someone’s photograph as it is being taken: Who’s that creeping in the background of the picture?
  12. to slip, slide, or shift gradually; become displaced.
  13. (of a metal object) to become deformed, as under continuous loads or at high temperatures.
  14. Nautical. to grapple (usually followed by for): The ships crept for their anchor chains.
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verb (used with object), crept, creep·ing.
  1. Slang. to follow persistently or stealthily, especially online: I’ve been creeping her blog and found some great recipes.
  2. Archaic. to creep along or over.
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noun
  1. an act or instance of creeping: It seems as if time has slowed to a creep.
  2. Slang. an obnoxious, disturbingly eccentric, deviant, or painfully introverted person.
  3. Slang. an intelligence or counterintelligence agent; spy.
  4. Slang. creeper(def 10).
  5. a gradual or inconspicuous increase, advance, change, or development: Avoid jargon creep in your writing. We are seeing the steady creep of consumerism.
  6. Geology.
    1. the gradual movement downhill of loose soil, rock, gravel, etc.; solifluction.
    2. the slow deformation of solid rock resulting from constant stress applied over long periods.
  7. Mechanics. the gradual, permanent deformation of a body produced by a continued application of heat or stress.
  8. a grappling iron; grapnel.
  9. Firearms. the slack in a trigger mechanism before it releases the firing pin.
  10. creep feeder.
  11. 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.
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Idioms
  1. make one's flesh creep, to be frightening or repellent; cause one to experience uneasiness: The eerie stories made our flesh creep.
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Origin of creep

before 900; Middle English crepen, Old English crēopan; cognate with Dutch kruipen, Old Norse krjūpa
Related formscreep·ing·ly, adverbnon·creep·ing, adjectiveout·creep, verb (used with object), out·crept, out·creep·ing.un·creep·ing, adjective

Synonyms

See more synonyms for creep on Thesaurus.com
3. inch, crawl, dawdle, poke.

Synonym study

1. See crawl1.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for creeps

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Weird places some of them, too—gives me the creeps to think of them sometimes!

    The Avenger

    E. Phillips Oppenheim

  • It's foolish, but that still and the liquor gives me the creeps.

    L'Assommoir

    Emile Zola

  • I hide the box of bug powder when I hear two other creeps come running.

    Operation Earthworm

    Joe Archibald

  • These men gave him the creeps, innocent of all guilt though he was.

  • It gave me the creeps, and that is a sensation that does not bother me very much these days.

British Dictionary definitions for creeps

creeps

pl n
  1. the creeps informal a feeling of fear, repulsion, disgust, etc
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creep

verb creeps, creeping or crept (intr)
  1. to crawl with the body near to or touching the ground
  2. to move slowly, quietly, or cautiously
  3. to act in a servile way; fawn; cringe
  4. to move or slip out of place, as from pressure or wear
  5. (of plants) to grow along the ground or over rocks, producing roots, suckers, or tendrils at intervals
  6. (of a body or substance) to become permanently deformed as a result of an applied stress, often when combined with heating
  7. to develop graduallycreeping unrest
  8. to have the sensation of something crawling over the skin
  9. (of metals) to undergo slow plastic deformation
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noun
  1. the act of creeping or a creeping movement
  2. slang a person considered to be obnoxious or servile
  3. the continuous permanent deformation of a body or substance as a result of stress or heat
  4. geology the gradual downwards movement of loose rock material, soil, etc, on a slope
  5. a slow relative movement of two adjacent parts, structural components, etc
  6. slow plastic deformation of metals
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See also creeps

Word Origin

Old English crēopan; related to Old Frisian kriāpa, Old Norse krjūpa, Middle Low German krūpen
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for creeps

creep

v.

Old English creopan "to creep" (class II strong verb; past tense creap, past participle cropen), from Proto-Germanic *kreupanan (cf. Old Frisian kriapa, Middle Dutch crupen, Old Norse krjupa "to creep"), from PIE root *greug-. Related: Crept; creeping.

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creep

n.

"a creeping motion," 1818, from creep (v.). Meaning "despicable person" is 1935, American English slang, perhaps from earlier sense of "sneak thief" (1914). Creeper "a gilded rascal" is recorded from c.1600, and the word also was used of certain classes of thieves, especially those who robbed customers in brothels. The creeps "a feeling of dread or revulsion" first attested 1849, in Dickens.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with creeps

creep

In addition to the idiom beginning with creep

  • creep up on

also see:

  • make one's flesh creep
  • the creeps
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.