v. t. [ imp. Crept Crope Obs.); p. p. Crept; p. pr. & vb. n. Creeping. ] [ OE. crepen, creopen, AS. creópan; 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness. [ 1913 Webster ]

The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail,
Unwillingly to school. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Like a guilty thing, I creep. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. 2. Tim. iii. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant. [ 1913 Webster ]

To come as humbly as they used to creep. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act or process of creeping. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects. [ 1913 Webster ]

A creep of undefinable horror. Blackwood's Mag. [ 1913 Webster ]

Out of the stillness, with gathering creep,
Like rising wind in leaves. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, creeps; any creeping thing. [ 1913 Webster ]

Standing waters are most unwholesome, . . . full of mites, creepers; slimy, muddy, unclean. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A plant that clings by rootlets, or by tendrils, to the ground, or to trees, etc.; as, the Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia). [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A small bird of the genus Certhia, allied to the wrens. The brown or common European creeper is Certhia familiaris, a variety of which (var. Americana) inhabits America; -- called also tree creeper and creeptree. The American black and white creeper is Mniotilta varia. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A kind of patten mounted on short pieces of iron instead of rings; also, a fixture with iron points worn on a shoe to prevent one from slipping. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. pl. A spurlike device strapped to the boot, which enables one to climb a tree or pole; -- called often telegraph creepers. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A small, low iron, or dog, between the andirons. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. pl. An instrument with iron hooks or claws for dragging at the bottom of a well, or any other body of water, and bringing up what may lie there. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. Any device for causing material to move steadily from one part of a machine to another, as an apron in a carding machine, or an inner spiral in a grain screen. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. pl. (Arch.) Crockets. See Crocket. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A hole or retreat into which an animal may creep, to escape notice or danger. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A subterfuge; an excuse. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A low stool. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An uneasy sensation as of insects creeping on the skin. [ 1913 Webster ]

She felt a curious, uneasy creepiness. Mrs. Alexander. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Crawling, or moving close to the ground. “Every creeping thing.” Gen. vi. 20. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Growing along, and clinging to, the ground, or to a wall, etc., by means of rootlets or tendrils. [ 1913 Webster ]

Casements lined with creeping herbs. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ceeping crowfoot (Bot.), a plant, the Ranunculus repens. --
Creeping snowberry, an American plant (Chiogenes hispidula) with white berries and very small round leaves having the flavor of wintergreen. [ 1913 Webster ]

. The stonecrop (Sedum acre). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

adv. by creeping slowly; in the manner of a reptile; insidiously; cunningly. [ 1913 Webster ]

How slily and creepingly did he address himself to our first parents. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Cripple. ] 1. A creeping creature; a reptile. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

There is one creeping beast, or long creeple (as the name is in Devonshire), that hath a rattle at his tail that doth discover his age. Morton (1632). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who is lame; a cripple. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou knowest how lame a creeple this world is. Donne. [ 1913 Webster ]