Word.ws English Dictionary

sneaking up

sneaking up is the present participle and gerund of sneak up.

Meaning of sneak up

Verb

sneak up (third-person singular simple present sneaks up, present participle sneaking up, simple past and past participle sneaked up or (chiefly US, informal) snuck up)

  1. To approach a person or animal without being seen or heard
    • If you sneak up from behind like that, you'll give me a heart attack!
  2. To deliver a sudden effect, often unexpectedly and without warning.
    • Watch out for that brown liquor. It sneaks up on you quickly.

Questions about sneaking up

What is sneaking up the present participle and gerund of?
Sneaking up is the present participle and gerund of sneak up.

Words near sneaking up in the dictionary

  1. sneaking past
  2. sneaking regarder
  3. sneaking regarders
  4. sneaking suspicion
  5. sneaking suspicions
  6. sneaking up
  7. sneakingly
  8. sneakingness
  9. sneakings
  10. sneakish
  11. sneakishly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sneaking up (page history and authors); sneak up (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.

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