the creeps

Idioms  

1. Also, the willies. A sensation of horror or repugnance, as in That weird man gives me the creeps, or I get the willies when I hear that dirge music. The first of these colloquial terms alludes to a sensation of something crawling on one's skin. Charles Dickens used it in David Copperfield (1849) to describe a physical ailment: “She was constantly complaining of the cold and of its occasioning a visitation in her back, which she called ‘the creeps.’” But soon after it was used to describe fear and loathing. The variant dates from the late 1800s, and both its allusion and origin are unclear.

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Example Sentences

Now Crawley is up against a New Zealand team that gives him the creeps.

From BBC • Dec. 5, 2024

"Patrick didn't give me the creeps, per se, but I do remember being like, 'Oh my gosh, I shouldn't be doing this.'"

From Salon • Sep. 21, 2023

Many pointed to the Astro home monitoring robot launched in 2021 that, at $1,600, remains niche and was criticized for giving some consumers the creeps.

From Reuters • Sep. 19, 2023

The subject of their dispute: Edgar Allan Poe, a horror writer whose short stories were giving Americans the creeps from coast to coast.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 30, 2022

I don't know why I keep asking, because it gives me the creeps.

From "Freak The Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick