creeps

[ kreeps ]

/ krips /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR creeps ON THESAURUS.COM

noun (used with a singular verb)

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.

Nearby words

creeping fescue, creeping jennie, creeping jesus, creeping juniper, creeping thistle, creeps, creepy, creepy-crawly, creese, crefeld, crem

Origin of creeps

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

Definition for creeps (2 of 2)

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.

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.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR creep ON THESAURUS.COM

Related forms

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

Synonym study

1. See crawl¹.

Word story

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.”

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for creeps

From creeps and trolls to hoaxes and hackers, these are the things that made us want to say sayonara to the Interwebs this year.
10 Things That Made Us Want to Turn Off the Internet Forever in 2014|The Daily Beast|December 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
There is a slightly more political bent to the movies, and we all have a political point of view, and it creeps into the films.
Simon Kinberg on ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ ‘The Fantastic Four’ Reboot, and Black Superheroes|Marlow Stern|May 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
She called father and son The Creeps, or just Them, as in “I want to see them brought out feet first.”
The Ballad of Johnny France|Richard Ben Cramer|January 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Of course, Creekmore knew the tales about the Killer, and frankly, the house gave him the creeps.
The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis|Richard Ben Cramer|January 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST

And nobody fears the spotlight as creeps who would be shown for what they really are.
FBI Sting Rescues 105 Kids, Nabs 159 Pimps—But What About the Johns?|Michael Daly|July 30, 2013|DAILY BEAST
She just creeps along and crushes down a whole acre of it at one time!
When Life Was Young|C. A. Stephens
Old Mr. Creeps accepted the invitation for a couple of days.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
Thoughts change to realities, the past creeps close, and dream figures are filled with blood and fire.
The Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure|Rex Beach
Over there one creeps away like a hurt animal because there is nothing else.
The Great Prince Shan|E. Phillips Oppenheim
She was weaker and thinner, and her eyes had taken on an alarming, fixed stare, which gave one the creeps.
The Enemies of Women|Vicente Blasco Ibez

British Dictionary definitions for creeps (1 of 2)

creeps

/ (kriːps) /

pl n

the creeps informal a feeling of fear, repulsion, disgust, etc

British Dictionary definitions for creeps (2 of 2)

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 graduallycreeping 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

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

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