Part 649

The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school. Shak.

Like a guilty thing, I creep. Tennyson.

3. To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self; as, age creeps upon us.

The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. Locke.

Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. 2. Tim. iii. 6.

4. To slip, or to become slightly displaced; as, the collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying; the quicksilver on a mirror may creep.

5. To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.

To come as humbly as they used to creep. Shak.

6. To grow, as a vine, clinging to the ground or to some other support by means of roots or rootlets, or by tendrils, along its length. "Creeping vines." Dryden.

7. To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl; as, the sight made my flesh creep. See Crawl, v. i., 4.

8. To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.

Creep, n. 1. The act or process of creeping.

2. A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects.

A creep of undefinable horror. Blackwood's Mag.

Out of the stillness, with gathering creep, Like rising wind in leaves. Lowell.

3. (Mining) A slow rising of the floor of a gallery, occasioned by the pressure of incumbent strata upon the pillars or sides; a gradual movement of mining ground.

Creep"er (krēp"&etilde;r), n. 1. One who, or that which, creeps; any creeping thing.

Standing waters are most unwholesome, . . . full of mites, creepers; slimy, muddy, unclean. Burton.

2. (Bot.) A plant that clings by rootlets, or by tendrils, to the ground, or to trees, etc.; as, the Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia).

3. (Zo÷l.) A small bird of the genus Certhia, allied to the wrens. The brown or common European creeper is C. familiaris, a variety of which (var. Americana) inhabits America; -- called also tree creeper and creeptree. The American black and white creeper is Mniotilta varia.

4. A kind of patten mounted on short pieces of iron instead of rings; also, a fixture with iron points worn on a shoe to prevent one from slipping.

5. pl. A spurlike device strapped to the boot, which enables one to climb a tree or pole; -- called often telegraph creepers.

6. A small, low iron, or dog, between the andirons.

7. pl. An instrument with iron hooks or claws for dragging at the bottom of a well, or any other body of water, and bringing up what may lie there.

8. Any device for causing material to move steadily from one part of a machine to another, as an apron in a carding machine, or an inner spiral in a grain screen.

9. pl. (Arch.) Crockets. See Crocket.

Creep"hole` (-h?l`), n. 1. A hole or retreat into which an animal may creep, to escape notice or danger.

2. A subterfuge; an excuse.