creep

KREEP/kɹiːp/

20 meanings of creep

1
nounderogatorycolloquialcountable or uncountable
An unpleasant, strange person who makes other people feel uneasy.
Everyone avoids that creep at the back of the bus.
He acted like such a creep at the party that people left early.
Similarcreeper
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2
verbintransitive
To move slowly and quietly toward a place.
Like a cat sneaking up on a mouse without making a sound.
I creep up the stairs at night so I don't wake anyone.
The cat crept slowly toward the sleeping bird.
Similarsneak, tiptoe, steal, slink, edge
3
verbintransitive
To move in a secret way, or to slowly enter a place without being noticed.
Like water slowly seeping in under a closed door.
Doubt began to creep into his mind during the test.
The fog crept in over the harbor just before dawn.
Similarsteal, sneak, slip, spread
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4
verbintransitive
To move slowly along the ground with the belly close to it.
Like a baby moving along the floor on its tummy.
Babies creep across the floor before they learn to walk.
The lizard crept under a rock to hide from the hawk.
Similarcrawl
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5
noununcountable
The slow spread of something past its first limits, in a way people see as bad.
Like a small stain on a shirt that keeps spreading wider and wider.
The project suffered from creep as new features kept getting added.
Budget creep made the plan far more expensive than anyone expected.
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6
nounderogatorycolloquialcountable or uncountable
A person who behaves in a sexual way that makes others feel disgusted or unsafe.
She reported the creep who kept messaging her inappropriately.
Some creep was harassing women on the late train.
Similarpervert, perv
7
verbintransitive
To change slowly, little by little, usually in one direction.
Prices creep up every year without anyone really noticing.
The temperature crept higher as noon approached.
Similarinch, edge
8
verbintransitive
To grow flat across a surface instead of growing upward.
Like a blanket spreading out flat over the ground instead of piling up.
Ivy will creep across the whole wall if you let it.
The vines crept over the old fence all summer long.
Similarspread, trail, sprawl
9
verbintransitive
To feel as if insects are moving on your skin, often from fear or disgust.
Like the shivery feeling of a bug walking across your arm.
Just thinking about spiders makes my skin creep.
His scalp crept when the floorboards groaned behind him.
Similarcrawl, prickle, tingle
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10
nouncountable or uncountable
A small, slow change in a measured value away from what was planned.
Like a clock that falls behind by a tiny bit each day.
We noticed some creep in the sensor readings over the week.
The clock showed a slow creep away from the correct time.
Similardrift, deviation

11
verbintransitive
To act in a weak, flattering way to please someone more powerful.
Like a dog rolling over to please its owner.
He would creep to the boss, agreeing with everything she said.
New workers sometimes creep to managers, hoping to keep their jobs.
Similargrovel, fawn, kowtow, toady, crawl
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12
verbslangintransitive
To secretly have sex with someone who is not your partner.
She found out he had been creeping the whole time they dated.
He swore he would never creep on her again.
Similarcheat, stray
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13
verbintransitive
To slip slowly out of place, little by little.
Like a sock that slowly slides down inside your shoe.
The heavy rug began to creep across the polished floor.
Over the winter, the fence posts crept slightly to one side.
Similarslip, shift, drift, work
14
nouncountable or uncountable
A small, slow movement of something out of its place.
Like a parked car slowly rolling a few inches on its own.
Engineers noticed a slow creep in the bridge supports.
There was a tiny creep in the shelf each time we added books.
Similarshift, displacement, slippage, movement
15
nouncountable or uncountable
The slow crawling movement of animals like worms or snails.
Like the slow way a snail inches across the ground.
We watched the slow creep of the snail across the leaf.
The creep of the caterpillar up the stem took several minutes.
Similarcrawl
16
nouncountable or uncountable
The slow stretching or bending of a material when force is put on it for a long time.
Like a plastic shelf that slowly bends after holding heavy books for years.
Over the years, creep in the metal beam made it sag.
The plastic showed creep after holding the weight for months.
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17
nouncountable or uncountable
The very slow, downhill movement of soil and rock on a slope.
Like a slow-moving stream of soil sliding downhill over many years.
Slow creep on the hillside tilted the old fence over the years.
You can see creep where the trees on the slope bend at the base.
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18
verbtransitive
To drag the sea bottom with hooks to pull up something like a sunken cable.
Like dragging a hook along the bottom of a pond to find something dropped in.
The crew began to creep the seabed for the broken cable.
Workers crept the bottom until the lost line finally came up.
Similardrag, dredge, sweep, trawl
19
nouncountable or uncountable
In sewn books, the way the inner pages of a folded section stick out past the outer ones.
Like folding a thick stack of paper in half: the inside sheets poke out farther.
The binder trimmed the edges to hide the creep in the thick booklet.
Creep made the inner pages of the magazine stick out a little.
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20
nouncountable or uncountable
A fence with small gaps that lets young animals through but keeps big ones out.
Like a small pet door that only lets the cat through, not the big dog.
The farmer built a creep so the lambs could reach their own food.
The calves slipped through the creep to eat while the cows stayed out.
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Practice

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Origin

From Old English crēopan, meaning "to creep or crawl." The noun comes from the verb.