# creep

> English word · Verb · IPA /kɹiːp/ · frequency rank #9,029

## Definitions
1. To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
2. To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
3. To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
4. To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
5. To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.
6. To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
7. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
8. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
9. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
10. To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.

## Etymology
From Middle English crepen, from Old English crēopan (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-West Germanic *kreupan, from Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to twist, creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ- (“to turn, wind”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian krûpe (“to creep, crawl”), Central Franconian kruffe (“to creep, crawl”), Dutch kruipen (“to creep, crawl”), Low German krepen, krupen (“to creep, crawl”), Danish krybe (“to creep”), Faroese krúpa (“to creep”), Icelandic krjúpa (“to kneel down, to genuflect, to get down on one's knees”), Norwegian Bokmål krype (“to creep”), Norwegian Nynorsk krjupa, krjupe, krypa, krype (“to creep, crawl”), Swedish krypa (“to creep, crawl”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der.
Proto-Germanic *kreupaną
Proto-West Germanic *kreupan
Old English crēopan
Middle English crepen
English creep

## Easily confused with
- **crew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crew)
- **crop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crop)
- **cried** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-cried)
- **cruel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-cruel)
- **cries** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-cries)
- **crews** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crews)
- **crisp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crisp)
- **crest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crest)
- **Crete** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crete)
- **crept** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crept)
- **Crewe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crewe)
- **crème** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-creme)
- **crump** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crump)
- **crimp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crimp)
- **creepy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-creepy)
- **creeps** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-creeps)
- **crewed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-crewed)
- **creeper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-creeper)
- **creeped** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/creep-vs-creeped)
- **cee** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cee-vs-creep)

## Common misspellings (7)
`ccreep`, `cerep`, `creepp`, `crep`, `crepe`, `crreep`, `rceep`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/creep