| creep |
verb t. |
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., To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness., 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., 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., To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant., 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., 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., To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable., The act or process of creeping., A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects., 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. |