1. Characterized by creeping or moving slowly.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 95. It is a creepy fluid.
1860. All Year Round, No. 49. 538. She is rarely still, though I am bound to say she is creepy gentleness itself.
1889. J. Abercrombie, E. Caucasus, 180. An artistically embroidered coverlet tenanted … by countless swarms of creepy insects.
2. Having a creeping of the flesh, or chill shuddering feeling, caused by horror or repugnance.
1831. Cat’s Tail, 30. I feel somehow quite creepy at the thought of what’s coming.
1863. Ld. Lytton, Ring Amasis, II. 38. There comes over him, all at once, a sort of cold, creepy shudder.
1882. Macm. Mag., 444/2. To confess that he has felt ‘creepy’ on account of certain inexplicable sounds.
b. transf. Tending to produce such sensations.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 236. The whole place seemed lonely, and, as Mildred whispered to Pauline, ‘creepy.’
1892. Spectator, 2 April, 470/1. A really effective romance of the creepy order.
