Creep \Creep\ (kr[=e]p), v. t. [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.
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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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