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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Creep \Creep\ (kr[=e]p), verb (used with an object) [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.
Ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. --Milton.
2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school. --Shak.
Like a guilty thing, I creep. --Tennyson.
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.
The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. --Locke.
Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. --2. Tim. iii. 6.
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.
5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.
To come as humbly as they used to creep. --Shak.
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.
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}, verb (used without an object), 4.
8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Creep \Creep\, noun
1. The act or process of creeping.
2. A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects.
A creep of undefinable horror. --Blackwood's Mag.
Out of the stillness, with gathering creep, Like rising wind in leaves. --Lowell.
3. (Mining) A slow rising of the floor of a gallery, occasioned by the pressure of incumbent strata upon the pillars or sides; a gradual movement of mining ground.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
creep
noun
1: someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric [syn: {weirdo}, {weirdie}, {weirdy}, {spook}]
2: a slow longitudinal movement or deformation
3: a pen that is fenced so that young animals can enter but adults cannot
4: a slow creeping mode of locomotion (on hands and knees or dragging the body); "a crawl was all that the injured man could manage"; "the traffic moved at a creep" [syn: {crawl}, {crawling}, {creeping}]
verb
1: move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground; "The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed" [syn: {crawl}]
2: to go stealthily or furtively; "..stead of sneaking around spying on the neighbor's house" [syn: {sneak}, {mouse}, {steal}, {pussyfoot}]
3: grow in such a way as to cover (a building, for example); "ivy grew over the walls of the university buildings" [syn: {grow over}]
4: show submission or fear [syn: {fawn}, {crawl}, {cringe}, {cower}, {grovel}] [also: {crept}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
138 Moby Thesaurus words for "creep": SOB, all fours, amble, andante, bastard, bend the knee, bootlick, bow, bow and scrape, bugger, claudicate, claudication, couch, cower, crawl, crawling, creeping, cringe, crouch, dead march, dogtrot, drag, drag along, drag on, drag out, fart, fawn, feel creepy, feel funny, flatter, footpace, funeral march, go dead slow, go on, go on tiptoe, go slow, grovel, gumshoe, gumshoeing, have gooseflesh, have the creeps, heel, hobble, hood, hooligan, idle, inch, inch along, jerk, jog, jog trot, jog-trot, kneel, kowtow, lay wait, laze, leisurely gait, lick the dust, lickspittle, lie in wait, limp, linger, linger on, louse, lumbering pace, lurk, meanie, mincing steps, mosey, mother, nightwalk, nightwalking, pad, padding, pill, plod, poke, poke along, prowl, prowling, pussyfoot, pussyfooting, rack, rat, saunter, scrabble, scramble, shadow, shamble, shit, shithead, shitheel, shuffle, shuffle along, sidle, sidling, skulk, slink, slinking, slither, slouch, slow march, slow motion, snake, snaking, sneak, sneaking, squirm, stagger along, stalk, steal, steal along, stealing, stinkard, stinker, stoop, stroll, tarry, tippytoe, tiptoe, tiptoeing, toadeat, toady, toddle, toddle along, totter along, traipse, truckle, trudge, turd, waddle, walk, wear on, wiggle, worm, worm along, worming, wriggle
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
creep v. To advance, grow, or multiply inexorably. In hackish usage this verb has overtones of menace and silliness, evoking the creeping horrors of low-budget monster movies.
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