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Creep vs Climb - What's the difference?

creep | climb |

In intransitive terms the difference between creep and climb

is that creep is to make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction while climb is to jump high.

As a proper noun CREEP

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

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

    Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs

    climb

    English

    Verb

  • To ascend; rise; to go up.
    • Prices climbed steeply.
  • * Dryden
    • Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.
  • To mount; to move upwards on.
    • They climbed the mountain.
    Climbing a tree
  • To scale; to get to the top of something.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=May 22, author=David Harrison
    • , title=American boy, 13, is youngest person to climb Everest , work=Daily Telegraph online citation , page= , passage=He is a curly-haired schoolboy barely in his teens, but 13-year-old Jordan Romero from California has become the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.}}
  • To move (especially up and down something) by gripping with the hands and using the feet.
  • * 1900 , (James Frazer), (The Golden Bough) Chapter 65
    • A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth.
  • * 1900 , , ''(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
    • She thought she must have been mistaken at first, for none of the scarecrows in Kansas ever wink; but presently the figure nodded its head to her in a friendly way. Then she climbed down from the fence and walked up to it, while Toto ran around the pole and barked.
  • * 2008 , Tony Atkins, Dragonhawk - the Turning
    • Cutter and Bolan climbed around the furniture and piled into the back of the truck.
  • to practise the sport of climbing
  • to jump high
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28
    • , author=Paul Fletcher, title=Man City 4 - 0 Aston Villa, work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The defender climbed majestically at the near post to convert Johnson's corner. }}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2008, date=September 13
    • , title=Ospreys Glasgow Magners League, work=South Wales Evening Post citation , page= , passage=As the game moved towards injury time, the Ospreys forced a line-out which Jonathan Thomas climbed high to take.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2001, date=December 29, author=Derick Allsop
    • , title=Bolton's nine men hit back to steal a point, work=Daily Telegraph online citation , page= , passage=Four minutes of stoppage time were virtually up when Ricketts climbed to head in the equaliser from substitute Nicky Southall's centre.}}
  • To move to a higher position on the social ladder.
  • (botany) Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something.

    • Usage notes

    In the past, the forms clomb'' and ''clumb were encountered as simple past and past participle forms; these forms are now archaic or dialectical.

    Derived terms

    * climb down * climb down someone's throat * climb up * climb the ladder * climb the walls * climber * declimb * have a mountain to climb * unclimbed
    Synonyms
    (get to the top of) * scale

    Noun

    (wikipedia climb) (en noun)
  • An act of climbing.
  • * 2007 , Nigel Shepherd, Complete Guide to Rope Techniques
    • Make sure that you keep checking to see that everything remains safe throughout the climb .
  • The act of getting to somewhere more elevated.
  • * 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
    • The Mur de Péguère is a savage little climb , its last four kilometres a narrow tunnel of trees and excited spectators urging on the straining riders.
  • * 1999 , B. Keith Jones, The Roomie Do Me Blues
    • I guess the room wasn't so bad, except for the climb to get there. The stairs were destined to be a serious health hazard.
  • An upwards struggle
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=1998 , date=September 30 , author=AP , title=Worst May Lie Ahead For Asia, Report Warns , work=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel citation , page= , passage=After a decade of prosperity, millions of Asians are likely to be pushed into poverty, and the climb out of poverty will stall for millions of others}}

    Derived terms

    * rate of climb