The Collaborative International Dictionary
Creep \Creep\ (kr[=e]p), v. t. [imp. Crept (kr[e^]pt) ( Crope (kr[=o]p), Obs.); p. p. Crept; p. pr. & vb. n. Creeping.] [OE. crepen, creopen, AS. cre['o]pan; akin to D. kruipen, G. kriechen, Icel. krjupa, Sw. krypa, Dan. krybe. Cf. Cripple, Crouch.]
-
To move along the ground, or on any other surface, on the belly, as a worm or reptile; to move as a child on the hands and knees; to crawl.
Ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep.
--Milton. -
To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school.
--Shak.Like a guilty thing, I creep.
--Tennyson. -
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. 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.
-
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. 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.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.
To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
Wiktionary
vb. (context obsolete English) (en-simple pastcreep)
Usage examples of "crope".
Ama Clutch registered out loud that they were Masters Boq, Crope, and Tibbett, meeting Misses Galinda, Shenshen, and Pfannee.
The first time Boq saw Elphaba like this, he said, "I just barely manage to convince Crope and Tibbett to lose the espionage drag, and you come in looking like the original Kumbric Witch.
Some of the hens had gotten frostbite, for they were tender in those unfeathered fleshy parts, and Crope feared the black rot might set in.
Crope immediately looked away, for he knew how easy it was for lone men to fear him, and he had no wish to cause a stir.
The crowd surged forward and a cry went up from the redcloaks, and Crope found himself in the middle of a feeding frenzy.
Crope severed the chains that connected them, though he did not expect them to pull apart.
Quill thought it funny when he caught Crope scrubbing out the bath when he was done.
It was twilight, but Crope had stoked the fire to a furnace and lit so many candles that it now looked like day.
Others followed his lead, edging forward, careful not to step within the turning circle of Cropes massive seven-foot arm span.