creeping

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English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːpɪŋ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːpɪŋ

Etymology 1

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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

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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

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

Noun

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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 []
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