creep

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to move slowly

   They creeped slowly towards the door.

2. 2
   verb

   to go stealthily or furtively

   I creeped around in the morning as not to wake my partner.

3. 3
   verb

   to grow or spread, often in such a way as to cover a surface

   The ivy creeps over our brick home.

4. 4
   verb

   To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.

   Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.

5. 5
   verb

   To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.

   He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.

6. 6
   verb

   To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.

   Prices have been creeping up all year.

7. 7
   verb

   To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.

   Old age creeps upon us.

8. 8
   verb

   To slip, or to become slightly displaced.

   The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.

Etymology

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,…