Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Developing gradually over a period of time: "a creeping sense of cultural dread” ( Andrew Sullivan).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In submarine work, the act of dragging with creepers or grapnels to recover a lost object.
- n. Stalking or still-hunting, as for moose or deer.
- n. Motion of the rails of a railroad in the direction of traffic, due to a number of causes. The usual preventive measure is to notch the foot of the rail, and put through this notch the spike which holds the rail to the tie or sleeper.
- n. The slip of a belt or rope which is driving one pulley from another: due to working or elasticity in the belt or rope.
- n. In electricity, the slow drifting or moving of an instrument or meter at no load, due to inaccurate adjustment or to a slow change of the suspension.
- n. In geology, same as creep, 5.
Wiktionary
- v. present participle of creep.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Crawling, or moving close to the ground.
- adj. Growing along, and clinging to, the ground, or to a wall, etc., by means of rootlets or tendrils.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body
Etymologies
- creep + -ing (Wiktionary)
Examples
““The flooding in Africa just now is the worst anyone can remember,” Sir John said, expressing frustration at how little media attention in the west was being devoted to what he terms creeping climatic catastrophe.”
“Q Anatoly Kulikov, the Interior Minister's, charge that Lebed was engaged in what he called creeping coup plots.”
“Nations should deploy more observers immediately to prevent what he described as a creeping takeover of UNITA-held towns by government troops.”
“But Ivanhoe has proposed a plan - which has been approved by a majority of its other shareholders - to protect the company against what it called creeping takeovers by preventing any one investor from slowly building up a majority stake.”
“The Russian government has repeatedly stressed its opposition to what it calls the creeping of Nato into what Moscow deems its traditional sphere of influence.”
“OTTAWA – Anti-Semitism is creeping from the shadows into the mainstream and even onto university campuses, a parliamentary committee heard Monday.”
“Blairy beasts are creeping from the night to wards the camp fire and behind dangerously glittering eyes fatty Falconer has started muttering about the lack of a vision.”
“While L. and Aliette wait to begin their first lesson the next day, the mysterious illness is creeping from the sleepy Spanish tourist town of San Sebastián.”
“Creep, and Creep, now and then the creeping is too fast and the brakes have to be applied.”
“Something up there had told her – perhaps the quiet blue shadow of Windward Mountain creeping slowly over the pasture toward her, perhaps the silent glory of the great red-and-gold tree, perhaps the singing murmur of the little brook – perhaps all of them together had told her that now had come a time when she must do more than what Cousin Ann would do – when she”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘creeping’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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What A Creep...
Words that contain "creep".
creep, overcreep, undercreep, creephole, honeycreeper, creepy, creeper, creeping, tree-creeper, crust-creep, creeped, creeps and 13 more...
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Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV
Words from the songs of Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis
zugzwang, valhalla, montalvo, ishist, tritons, mosh, siam, llano del rio, protohuman, tumbleweeds, ludwigshafen, ballyhoos and 349 more...
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some-ing
king, offering, blessing, coping, earnings, trappings, breeding, during, offing, refreshing, sitting, outing and 208 more...
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Probe~ation
An obnoxious and ridiculous madlib list where verbish '-ing' words fill in the blank wherein the blank is a call for a beating.
For example:
"You're ________in' for a brus...searching, looking, hunting, seeking, questing, exploring, asking, inquiring, snooping, poking, probing, scouting and 262 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for creeping.
bilby
When you watch for
Feather or fur
Feather or fur
Do not stir
Do not stir.
Feather or fur
Come crawling
Creeping
Some come peeping
Some by night
And some by day.
Most come gently
All come softly
Do not scare
A friend away.
- John Becker, 'Feather or Fur'. Nov 8, 2008