CREEP
What does "CREEP" mean?
To move slowly and quietly, especially to avoid being noticed.
Meanings
- To move slowly and stealthily, keeping low or quiet. She crept past the sleeping dog and out the door.
- To advance or develop gradually and almost imperceptibly. Doubt began to creep into his voice.
- An unpleasant or untrustworthy person. He was a real creep, always watching people. informal
- The slow permanent deformation of a solid material under long-term stress. Engineers must account for metal creep in turbine blades. technical
Word origin
From Old English 'creopan', meaning 'to move with the body close to the ground'; related to Dutch 'kruipen' and the same Germanic root behind 'cripple'.
Remember it
CREEP has a long, slow 'eeee' in the middle - stretch it out and you can feel how slowly the word itself moves.
A little poem
Not the loud betrayal-
it was the small one, creeping
in on cat-soft feet.
haiku
Wordplay
- Scope creep walked into the project. Then it asked for just one more small feature.
What it teaches
What ruins you rarely kicks the door in; it creeps, one unremarkable inch at a time.
Quick facts
What does CREEP mean?
To move slowly and quietly, especially to avoid being noticed.
Is CREEP a valid word?
Yes — CREEP is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CREEP?
CREEP has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does CREEP come from?
From Old English 'creopan', meaning 'to move with the body close to the ground'; related to Dutch 'kruipen' and the same Germanic root behind 'cripple'.
What can CREEP teach us?
What ruins you rarely kicks the door in; it creeps, one unremarkable inch at a time.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.