schleichen
German, verb
schleichen is spelled S-C-H-L-E-I-C-H-E-N (10 letters) and appears 2.3 times per million words in written German, the 21,569th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Schleichen is a German verb meaning “to move in a quiet and inconspicuous manner, hence often slowly and/or ducked: to crawl, to sneak, to steal, to prowl, to creep, to slither…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Schleichen is a different word: “gerund of schleichen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “lautlos gehen”.
What does schleichen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to move in a quiet and inconspicuous manner, hence often slowly and/or ducked: to crawl, to sneak, to steal, to prowl, to creep, to slither (of a snake)
- 2
to go somewhere in the above manner
- 3
informalto move slowly (especially in a car)
Was schleicht der da so?
- 4
informalto slink away; to leave meekly or sheepishly
- 5
Austriacolloquialvulgarto piss off
Schleich dich!
noun
- 1
neutergerund of schleichen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. lautlos gehen 2. nur langsam vorankommen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of schleichen
- schleicht present singular third-person
- schlich past
- geschlichen participle past
- sein auxiliary
- 1 strong
- schleichend participle present
- schleiche first-person indicative present
- schleichst indicative present second-person
- schleichest second-person singular subjunctive
- schleichet plural second-person subjunctive
- schlichen first-person indicative plural
- schliche first-person formal rare
- schlichst indicative preterite second-person
- schlicht indicative plural preterite
- schlichest formal rare second-person
- schlichet formal plural rare
- schleich imperative second-person singular
- schleiche! imperative singular
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to schleichen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is schleichen in German?
schleichen appears 2.3 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).