What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

What is the difference between crawl and creep?

crawl | creep |

Creep is a synonym of crawl.



In intransitive terms the difference between crawl and creep

is that crawl is to visit while becoming inebriated while creep is to make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.

As a proper noun CREEP is

the Committee to Re-elect the President, which raised money for Richard Nixon's campaign for 1972 reelection.

crawl

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) crawlen, (m), ‘to scratch, scrape’. More at (l).

Verb

(en verb)
  • To creep; to move slowly on hands and knees, or by dragging the body along the ground.
  • * Grew
  • A worm finds what it searches after only by feeling, as it crawls from one thing to another.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’}}
  • To move forward slowly, with frequent stops.
  • To act in a servile manner.
  • * Shakespeare
  • hath crawled into the favour of the king
  • See crawl with.
  • To feel a ing sensation.
  • To swim using the crawl stroke.
  • To move over an area on hands and knees.
  • To visit while becoming inebriated.
  • To visit files or web sites in order to index them for searching.
  • Derived terms
    * crawler
    Descendants
    * German:

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of moving slowly on hands and knees etc, or with frequent stops
  • A rapid swimming stroke with alternate overarm strokes and a fluttering kick
  • (television, film) A piece of horizontally scrolling text overlaid on the main image.
  • * 22 March 2012 , Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games [http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/]
  • The opening crawl (and a stirring propaganda movie) informs us that “The Hunger Games” are an annual event in Panem, a North American nation divided into 12 different districts, each in service to the Capitol, a wealthy metropolis that owes its creature comforts to an oppressive dictatorship.
    Derived terms
    * front crawl * pub crawl * urban crawl

    Etymology 2

    Compare kraal.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A pen or enclosure of stakes and hurdles for holding fish.
  • ----

    creep

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) crepen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
  • Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
  • * 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • One evening, while the Rabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro between his velvet paws in the grass, he saw two strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near him.
  • Of plants, to grow across a surface rather than upwards.
  • To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
  • He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
  • To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
  • Prices have been creeping up all year.
  • To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.
  • Old age creeps upon us.
  • * John Locke
  • the sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument
  • To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
  • The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.
    The quicksilver on a mirror may creep .
  • To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
  • a creeping sycophant
  • * Shakespeare
  • to come as humbly as they used to creep
  • To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
  • The sight made my flesh creep .
  • To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
  • Synonyms
    * (move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground) crawl * (grow across a surface rather than upwards) * (move slowly and quietly in a particular direction) * (make small gradual changes)
    Derived terms
    * creep up on * creepy / creepy-crawly * give someone the creeps * creep someone out

    Etymology 2

    From the above verb.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails)
  • A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
  • A slight displacement of an object: the slight movement of something
  • The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively.
  • Christmas creep'''. Feature '''creep'''. Instruction '''creep'''. Mission ' creep
  • (publishing) In sewn books, the tendency of pages on the inside of a quire to stand out farther than those on the outside of it.
  • (materials science) An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
  • (geology) The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.
  • (informal, pejorative) An annoying irritating person
  • (informal, pejorative) A frightening and/or disconcerting person, especially one who gives the speaker chills or who induces psychosomatic facial itching.
  • Stop following me, you creep !
  • (agriculture) A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.
  • Derived terms
    * bracket creep * Christmas creep * feature creep * focus creep * function creep ((function creep)) * instruction creep ((instruction creep)) * mission creep ((mission creep)) * requirement creep ((requirement creep)) * scope creep * season creep