creeping

/ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/

creeping is the present participle and gerund of creep.

Meaning of creep

Verb

creep (third-person singular simple present creeps, present participle creeping, simple past crept or creeped or (archaic) crope, past participle crept or creeped or (archaic) crope or (archaic) cropen)

(intransitive) To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
- Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
Synonyms:

crawl
(intransitive) To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
(intransitive) To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
- He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
(intransitive) To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
- Prices have been creeping up all year.
(idiomatic) To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to insinuate itself or oneself.
- Old age creeps upon us.
Synonyms:

steal in
To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
- The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.

See all 20 meanings of creep

Noun

creeping (plural creepings)

The act of something that creeps.
- It is indubitably certain, therefore, that he is able to attend, and actually attends, to all things at the same moment; to the motions of a seed, or a leaf, or an atom; to the creepings of a worm, the flutterings of an insect, and the journeys of a mite […]1824, Timothy Dwight, Theology, Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons

Forms of creeping

plural	creepings

Origin of creeping

From Middle English crepynge, crepinde, crepende, crepande, from Old English crēopende, from Proto-Germanic *kreupandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *kreupaną (“to creep, crawl”), equivalent to creep + -ing.

From Middle English creping, crepynge, from Old English crēopung, equivalent to creep + -ing.

Words that rhyme with creeping

Questions about creeping

What does creeping mean?: Creeping means the act of something that creeps.
What is creeping the present participle and gerund of?: Creeping is the present participle and gerund of creep.
What part of speech is creeping?: Creeping is a noun.
How do you pronounce creeping?: Creeping is pronounced /ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/.
What is the plural of creeping?: The plural of creeping is creepings.

Words near creeping in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: creeping (page history and authors); creep (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-creeping.ogg.

Cite this entry: “creeping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/creeping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.