[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That creeps (as a reptile).
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. i. 25. And eall creopende cynn on heora cynne.
c. 1300. Cursor M., 19849 (Cott.). All maner crepand beist.
1483. Cath. Angl., 81. A Crepynge beste, reptile.
1611. Bible, Gen. viii. 19. Euery beast, euery creeping thing, and euery fowle.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 452. Cattel and Creeping things, and Beast of the Earth.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 568. The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight.
2. transf. and fig. a. Moving slowly, stealthily, or by imperceptible degrees.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 3567 (Fairf.). Wiþ crepinge croulis in his bake.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. v. 12. The creeping deadly cold.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 112. The creeping houres of time.
1700. Dryden, Sigism. & Guisc., 748. The creeping death Benumbed her senses first, then stopped her breath.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Farming, Wks. (Bohn), III. 59. The invisible and creeping air.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Creeping sickness, a form of chronic Ergotism.
b. Moving timidly or abjectly; acting meanly or servilely; cringing.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Instruct. Sonne, iii. in Rem. (1661), 89. Flatterers … are ever base, creeping, cowardly persons.
1706. Jer. Collier, Refl. Ridic., 112. Others of a mean and creeping Soul.
1769. Gray, Ode for Music, 9. Nor Envy base nor creeping Gain.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xv. (1860), 159/1. The mean vices,—such as theft, and the grosser and more creeping forms of untruthfulness and dishonesty.
3. Having the sensation of a nervous shiver.
[Cf. 1340 in 2 a.]
1814. Byron, Corsair, III. x. So thrill’d—so shudder’d every creeping vein. Ibid. (1815), Hebrew Mel., ‘A Spirit pass’d,’ 5. Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake.
1881. G. M. Beard, Sea-sickness, 24. Creeping chills up and down the spine.
4. Of plants: Having a stem or stems that extend themselves horizontally along the surface of the ground, and throw out roots at intervals. It is often popularly applied, instead of ‘climbing’ or ‘clinging,’ to plants that cling to and ascend trees, walls or hedges: cf. CREEPER 4.
Creeping root, a popular name for a rhizome or subterranean stem that grows horizontally and throws out shoots and roots at the joints, as in Wild Convolvulus.
[1552. Huloet, Creapyng here and there lyke a vyne, errans.]
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., ix. 57. With … creeping Vines on Arbours weav’d around.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 762. The casements lined with creeping herbs.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 111. I[ris] florentina and I. germanica … have more properly creeping roots.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xi. Creeping shrubs of thousand dyes.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 156. The underground creeping shoots of Pteris aquilina.
b. In the names of many plants with aerial creeping stems, as Creeping Ivy (the procumbent form of Hedera Helix), Creeping Jack, a local name of Sedum acre, Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia Nummularia, and other plants), Creeping Sailor (Saxifraga sarmentosa and Sedum acre), Creeping Wheat (Triticum repens), etc.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), III. 683. Creeping Mouse-ear. Mouse-ear Hawkweed.
1816. Keith, Phys. Bot., I. 45. The common Creeping Cinquefoil.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., VI. 124. Creeping Wheat, or Couch-grass.
1882. Garden, 12 Aug., 138/2. The common Moneywort, or Creeping Jenny as it is called.
