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CREEP

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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

creep¹

  • /kɹiːp/
  • [kʰɹiːp]

Rhymes with -iːp

Where it comes from

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

verb creeps · creeping · crept · creeped · crope

  1. intransitive To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground. Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
  2. intransitive To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
  3. intransitive To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction. He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
  4. intransitive To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction. Prices have been creeping up all year.
  5. idiomatic To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to insinuate itself or oneself. Old age creeps upon us.
  6. To slip, or to become slightly displaced. The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.
  7. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn. A creeping sycophant.
  8. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl. The sight made my flesh creep.
  9. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
  10. intransitive, slang To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with. Honey came in and she caught me red-handed / Creeping with the girl next door / Picture this we were both butt naked / Banging on the bathroom floor

noun creeps

  1. countable, uncountable The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails).
  2. countable, uncountable A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
  3. countable, uncountable A slight displacement of an object; the slight movement of something.
  4. uncountable The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively. Christmas creep
  5. countable, uncountable In sewn books, the tendency of pages on the inside of a quire to stand out farther than those on the outside of it.
  6. countable, uncountable An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
  7. countable, uncountable The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.
  8. countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable Someone creepy (annoyingly unpleasant), especially one who is strange or eccentric. "You mentioned some others," I said. "More creeps," she told me. '"That guy was plain looking for trouble. You know, he starts hanging out with some of the shooters Whitey Tass keeps around, angling for an introduction to the big man himself, and he's damn lucky he got picked up by the fuzz before W
  9. countable, derogatory, especially, informal, uncountable A person who engages in sexually inappropriate behaviour or sexual harassment. It was whispered that the priest was a pervert. Was he? The girls said he was a creep. I didn't quite know what it meant to be a creep, but it was obviously not a good thing. It was said that he sometimes fondled the girls, their breasts, and said lousy things to them, that they were beautiful or so
  10. countable, uncountable A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.

CREEP²

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, acronym, derogatory, historical Acronym of Committee to Re-elect the President, which raised money for Richard Nixon's campaign for 1972 reelection.Committee to Re-elect the President While presidential elections have been marred by mudslinging since the early Republic, these USC alums deployed a particular type of dirty tricks: what became known as “ratf--king,” or the use of unscrupulous tactics to interfere with the campaigns of opponents. The tactics pioneered by members of T

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