creeping

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːpɪŋ

Etymology 1

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.

Verb

creeping

1. present participle and gerund of creep
   • 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

     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.

Etymology 2

From Middle English creping, crepynge, from Old English crēopung, equivalent to creep +‎ -ing.

Noun

creeping (plural creepings)

1. The act of something that creeps.
   • 1824, Timothy Dwight, Theology, Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons:

     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 […]

Related terms

• creeping bentgrass
• creeping zinnia