Forms: 1 créopere, 4–6 creper(e, 6 crepar, 6– creeper. [f. CREEP v. + -ER.]
1. One who creeps. (In quot. 1883, a child too young to walk.)
a. 1000. Glostr. Frag., 12. 17 (Bosw.). Seo ealde cyrce wæs eall behangen mid criccum and mid creopera sceamelum.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 101. Crepere, or he þat crepythe, reptor.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., lx. 35. A creper with spiders, and a flier with flise.
1682. Otway, Venice Pres., V. ii. All us little creepers in ’t, called men.
1883. J. Parker, Apost. Life, II. 256. The door must not be shut … until the last little creeper has been brought in and sat at the Father’s table.
b. fig. One who moves stealthily, timidly, or abjectly, or proceeds in a mean and servile way.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxiv. (Arb.), 299. Sometimes a creeper, and a curry-fauell with his superiours.
1598. Florio, Insinuatore, a craftie slie creeper into ones bosome, fauor or minde.
c. 1605. Rowley, Birth Merl., III. vi. A gilded rascal, A low-bred despicable creeper.
1631. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlew. (1641), 360. They were … no strutters in the streets, but despicable creepers.
1811. Lamb, Trag. Shaks. The servilest creeper after nature that ever consulted the palate of an audience.
† c. slang. A ‘penny-a-liner’; see quot.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 241. A creeper is one who furnishes the newspapers with paragraphs at so much a line.
1825. T. H. Lister, Granby, lx. (1836), 425. Persons, called, in the slang of the trade, ‘creepers,’ whose business it is to prowl about, collecting incidents for the newspapers.
2. An animal that creeps, a creeping thing, an insect or reptile; spec. (in vulgar speech) a louse.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 147 b. You shall be sure to have neither Mite nor Creeper in your Cheese.
1609. Bible (Douay), Gen. vii. 21. Al creepers, that creepe upon the earth.
1651. Miller of Mansf., 8. Hast any Creepers within thy gay Hose?
1673. S. C., Rules of Civility, 61. ’Tis unbecoming … to scratch … as if there were Creepers upon our backs.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 200. A mounted gendarme would probably disdain to pursue a creeper.
b. Angling. The larva of the Stone-fly.
1867. F. Francis, Angling (1876), 264. The crab or creeper is the larva of the stone fly.
c. Poultry-rearing. ‘One of a breed of fowls with legs so short that they jump rather than walk.’
1885. in Annandale.
3. A name given to many small birds, of different families, which run or climb up and down the branches of trees and bushes; esp. the common Brown Creeper or Tree-creeper, Certhia familiaris.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Birds … not melodious, as the … witwal, creeper, wren.
1674. Ray, Eng. Birds, 84. The Creeper or Ox-eye Creeper.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 193. The creeper … next to the crested wren is the least of the British birds.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, vii. (1864), 203. Many pretty little blue and green creepers of the Dacnidæ group were daily seen feeding on berries.
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. 553. No Gold-crests or Creepers, and rarely any Wrens were seen.
4. A plant that creeps along the ground, or (more usually) one that ascends a supporting surface, as ivy and the Virginian Creeper (Ampelopsis hederacea); a climber.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 536. They are Winders and Creepers; as Ivy, Briony, Hops, Woodbine.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 31. This Plant is a Creeper, and twines or lashes itself round any Tree that is near it.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 37. The Ivy, and Virginia Creeper.
1818. Keats, Endym., II. 416. The creeper, mellowing for an autumn blush.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 60. Primeval labyrinths of giant trees, tangled with ten thousand creepers.
b. (pl.) Arch. ‘Leaves or clusters of foliage used in Gothic edifices to ornament the angles of spires, pinnacles, and other parts; crochets.’
1864. in Webster.
5. A kind of grapnel used for dragging the bottom of the sea or other body of water.
In first quot. app. used of a grappling-iron.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3667. Cogge appone cogge, krayers and oþer, Castys crepers one crosse als to þe crafte langes.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 106. He perist in Loch Tay … His body was found be creparis.
1730. Capt. W. Wriglesworth, MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell,’ 24 July. We sweaped with a Creeper for the Hawser, which we got hold of.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Creeper, an instrument of iron resembling a grappling, having a shank and four hooks or claws…. It is used to throw into the bottom of any river or harbour, with a rope fastened to it, to hook and draw up any thing … lost.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Creepers … 2. Grapnels to bring up any thing from the bottom of a well or pond.
1875. J. C. Wilcocks, Sea-Fisherman (ed. 3), 40–1. The Grapnel or Creeper Sinker is much used off Dartmouth and Start Bay, on account of the strength of the tidal currents…. These creepers have five claws.
1888. T. Hardy, Wessex Tales, II. 143.
† 6. A small iron ‘dog,’ of which a pair were placed on a hearth between the andirons. Obs.
1556. Inv. Goods, in Archæol., XXXVI. 289. A payre of crepers.
1565. Richmond. Wills (Surtees), 178. j. olde brandrethe … j. iron creper.
1629. Inv., in Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc., III. II. 167. i pr creepers, fire shovell and tonges.
1661. Prynne, Exam. Exub. Com. Prayer, 106. The little Creepers, not the great Brass shining Andirons, bear up all the wood, and heat of the fire.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 162. The andirons proper … and what were denominated creepers, a smaller sort, with short necks or none at all.
7. local. a. A kind of patten or clog worn by women. b. A piece of iron with points or spikes, worn under the feet to prevent slipping on ice, etc.
1721. Bailey, Creepers, a sort of Galoshes, between Clogs and Pattens, worn by Women.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Creepers, 1. Low pattens mounted on short iron stumps, instead of rings.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Creepers, pieces of iron, furnished with sharp points and strapped under the feet, to prevent one falling when walking upon ice.
1887. Newcastle Weekly Chron., Suppl. 1 Jan., 4/2. Ice-creepers are now on sale in certain shops of Newcastle.
8. = CREEP sb. 4.
1845. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VI. I. 189. That … lambs may … have more liberty, and pick out the shortest and sweetest of the keep, I have ‘creepers’ placed to enable them to do so.
9. a. An apparatus for conveying grain in corn-mills, a conveyor. b. An endless moving feeding-apron, in a carding-machine.
1847. Engineer & Mach. Assistant (Deser. Plates), 92. The creeper … constructed by Mr. Fairbairn.
1865. Sir W. Fairbairn, Mills & Mill-work, II. 140. The creeper consists of a long enclosed screw with a wide pitch and projecting thin threads enclosed in a wooden box or trough.
10. A small iron frying-pan with three legs; also called a spider. (U.S. local.)
1880. in Webster, Supp.
11. Comb., as (sense 4) creeper-clad, creeper-covered adjs.
1884. G. Allen, Philistia, I. 292. His pretty latticed creeper-clad window.
1888. Daily News, 25 June, 6/3. The cool woods and creeper-covered rocks of that happy retreat show splendidly.
