creepmouse

English

Etymology

creep +‎ mouse, from a likening of a person's character and/or behaviour to that of a small, timorous, and often unseen rodent.

Adjective

creepmouse (comparative more creepmouse, superlative most creepmouse)

1. (mildly derogatory) Timid and unassuming in the extreme.
   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 304:

     Indeed but you must, for we cannot excuse you. It need not frighten you; it is a nothing of a part, a mere nothing, not above half a dozen speeches altogether, and it will not much signify if nobody hears a word you say, so you may be as creepmouse as you like, but we must have you to look at.

   • 1985, Jean Ure, After Thursday, Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 161:

     Abe had been enjoying himself, without so much as a thought in his head as to how she was getting on; why shouldn't she have her turn? She was sick of being boring and creepmouse. While the cat was away the mice deserved to play — at least they did if that was how the cat was going to behave.

   • 1990 November 18, John McAleer, “Satirizing The Academy”, in Chicago Tribune:

     A box of manuscripts, buried with Ash by Ellen, his creepmouse widow, is opened; the lovers' final secrets are revealed. Ellen, we find, had never let Ash consummate their marriage.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:creepmouse.

Noun

creepmouse (plural creepmice)

1. (mildly derogatory) An extremely timid and unassuming person.
   • 1831, Catherine Gore, Mothers and Daughters, Volume II, E. L. Carey & A. Hart/Allen & Ticknor (1834), page 62:

     "Pho! pho ! — I do not believe a word of it. Lord Basingstoke is one of those shy young men who are very much attached to any one who will take the trouble of making love to them ; — one of those creepmice who run away with their mother's waiting-maid, or marry an actress for want of courage and patience to encounter the formalities of an honourable courtship. […]

   • 1907, Florence Hayllar, Nepenthes, William Blackwood and Sons, published 1907, page 5:

     The knocking was repeated, — a very gentle knocking, which seemed to argue that the devil was in a polite and patient mood. I felt a little creepmouse myself as I heard it, but I got up, and leaving the quaking woman in the parlour, I went and opened the door.

   • 2009, Laurie Viera Rigler, Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, Dutton, →ISBN, page 6:

     Don't be such a frightened little creepmouse. I take a deep breath, look at the feet again, and giggle.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:creepmouse.