creep
Meanings
- To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
- To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
- To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
- To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
- To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to insinuate itself or oneself.
- To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
- To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
- To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
- To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
- To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.
- The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails).
- A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
- A slight displacement of an object; the slight movement of something.
- The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively.
- In sewn books, the tendency of pages on the inside of a quire to stand out farther than those on the outside of it.
- An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
- The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.
- Someone creepy (annoyingly unpleasant), especially one who is strange or eccentric.
- A person who engages in sexually inappropriate behaviour or sexual harassment.
- A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.
- Acronym of Committee to Re-elect the President, which raised money for Richard Nixon's campaign for 1972 reelection.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English crepen, from Old English crēopan (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-West Germanic *kreupan, from Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to twist, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ- (“to turn, wind”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian krûpe (“to creep, crawl”), Central Franconian kruffe (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch kruipen (“to creep, crawl”), Low German krepen, krupen (“to creep, crawl”), Danish krybe (“to creep”), Faroese krúpa (“to creep”), Icelandic krjúpa (“to kneel down, to genuflect, to get down on one's knees”), Norwegian Bokmål krype (“to creep”), Norwegian Nynorsk krjupa, krjupe, krypa, krype (“to creep, crawl”), Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”). The noun is derived from the verb. Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *kreupaną Proto-West Germanic *kreupan Old English crēopan Middle English crepen English creep