GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
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Creep (krēp), v. t. [imp. Crept (krĕpt) (Crope (krōp), Obs.); p. p. Crept; p. pr. & vb. n. Creeping.] [OE. crepen, creopen, AS. creópan; 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.
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Ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. Milton.
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2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
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The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail,
Unwillingly to school. Shak.
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Like a guilty thing, I creep. Tennyson.
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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”.
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The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. Locke.
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Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. 2. Tim. iii. 6.
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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”.
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5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, “a creeping sycophant”.
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To come as humbly as they used to creep. Shak.
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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.
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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.
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8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
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