creep

verb

1. (intransitive)To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.

   “Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.”

   “One evening, while the Rabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro between his velvet paws in the grass, he saw two strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near him.”

   “Reed tips face the dawn shivering in the autumn wind At P'u-k'ou the winter tide has not yet come Sunrise on the sandy bank pocked with narrow caves Pale frogs and dark crabs creep without end.”

2. (intransitive)To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
3. (intransitive)To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.

   “He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.”

   “Electrification of the Eastern Region main line from Strasbourg, incidentally, is steadily creeping nearer to Paris, and is now complete as far as Château Thierry, 59 miles away; [...].”

   “She crept up the stairs, keeping well into the side because she knew they were less likely to creak this way.”

4. (intransitive)To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.

   “Prices have been creeping up all year.”

5. (idiomatic)To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to insinuate itself or oneself.

   “Old age creeps upon us.”

   “[…]guard his understanding from being imposed on by the willful or at least undesigned sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument.”

   “Paranoia strikes deep / Into your life it will creep / It starts when you're always afraid / Step out of line, the man come and take you away”

   “Midnight creeps so slowly into hearts of men / Who need more than they get / Daylight deals a bad hand to a woman / Who has laid too many bets”

6. 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.”

7. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.

   “A creeping sycophant.”

   “To come as humbly as they used to creep / To holy altars.”

8. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.

   “The sight made my flesh creep.”

9. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
10. (intransitive, slang)To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.

    “Honey came in and she caught me red-handed / Creeping with the girl next door / Picture this we were both butt naked / Banging on the bathroom floor”

    “I don't wanna know / If you're playin' me, keep it on the low / 'Cause my heart can't take it anymore / And if you're creepin', please don't let it show”

    “"Now you want the nigga out 'cause he creeping with his baby momma."”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails).
2. (countable, uncountable)A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
3. (countable, uncountable)A slight displacement of an object; the slight movement of something.
4. (uncountable)The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively.

   “Christmas creep”

   “feature creep”

   “instruction creep”

   “mission creep”

5. (countable, uncountable)In sewn books, the tendency of pages on the inside of a quire to stand out farther than those on the outside of it.
6. (countable, uncountable)An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
7. (countable, uncountable)The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.
8. (countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable)Someone creepy (annoyingly unpleasant), especially one who is strange or eccentric.

   “But I'm a creep / I'm a weirdo / What the hell am I doing here? / I don't belong here”

   “"Why're you working your butt off for that creep? He takes your money, borrows your car, and treats you like shit. Can't you tell he's on drugs?"”

   “"Outrageous!" said Tylan. "You know, without Fingers and baby Trev, we could have won." "Yeah, Trevor, what a creep — running off home at half-time like that," said Frankie.”

9. (countable, derogatory, especially, informal, uncountable)A person who engages in sexually inappropriate behaviour or sexual harassment.

   “It was whispered that the priest was a pervert. Was he? The girls said he was a creep. I didn't quite know what it meant to be a creep, but it was obviously not a good thing. It was said that he sometimes fondled the girls, their breasts, and said lousy things to them, that they were beautiful or something like that.[…]Disgusting guys. I thought the guy at Bústaðir was a creep. An old man who liked to dance.”

10. (countable, uncountable)A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.

name

1. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, derogatory, historical)Acronym of Committee to Re-elect the President, which raised money for Richard Nixon's campaign for 1972 reelection.

   “While presidential elections have been marred by mudslinging since the early Republic, these USC alums deployed a particular type of dirty tricks: what became known as “ratf--king,” or the use of unscrupulous tactics to interfere with the campaigns of opponents. The tactics pioneered by members of Trojans for Representative Government and later CREEP set a precedent for the sort of organized political sabotage that has become commonplace today in a digital world, especially for Republicans.”