Meanings
creeping1
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of creep
Then, in January, a creeping tsunami of train cancellations, triggered by major staff absences as a result of the aggressive transmissibility of Omicron, heaped further misery on rail users.
2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3
creeping2
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
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
creeping · verb
- Proto-Germanic*kreupaną“to creep, crawl”
- Proto-Germanic*kreupandz
- Old Englishcrēopende
- Middle Englishcrepynge
- Englishcreeping
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.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →creeping · noun
- Old Englishcrēopung
- Middle Englishcreping
- Englishcreeping
From Middle English creping, crepynge, from Old English crēopung, equivalent to creep + -ing.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with creeping
All rhymes →Cite this entry
creeping. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/creeping
“creeping.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/creeping. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “creeping,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/creeping.
Source: creeping on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.