- Creep
- 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.
[1913 Webster]
Ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness. [1913 Webster]
The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Like a guilty thing, I creep. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. --Locke. [1913 Webster]
Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. --2. Tim. iii. 6. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant. [1913 Webster]
To come as humbly as they used to creep. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
