creep
/kɹiːp/ verb B2- To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground. · Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
- To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
- To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction. · He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
- To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction. · Prices have been creeping up all year.
- To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to insinuate itself or oneself. · Old age creeps upon us.
- To slip, or to become slightly displaced. · 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. · A creeping sycophant.
- To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl. · The sight made my flesh creep.
He/she/it creeps · Past crept · Past participle crept · -ing form creeping
Verb forms
- Base form
- creep
- He/she/it
- creeps
- Past
- crept
- Past participle
- crept
- -ing form
- creeping
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand--so.
It was a very wide ditch, and when they crept up to the edge and looked into it they could see it was also very deep, and there were many big, jagged rocks at the bottom.
She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward closing the trap door so that no more accidents could happen.
When Marilla went out that evening to bring the cows from the back pasture, Matthew, who had been hanging about the barns and watching, slipped into the house with the air of a burglar and crept upstairs.
Other matches
Learn creep in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.