Creep vs Stagger - What's the difference?
creep | stagger | Related terms |
To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
Of plants, to grow across a surface rather than upwards.
To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.
* John Locke
To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
* Shakespeare
To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
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.
(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.
(agriculture) A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.
An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing, as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion; vertigo; -- often in the plural; as, the stagger of a drunken man.
A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; apoplectic or sleepy staggers.
bewilderment; perplexity.
In motorsport, the difference in circumference between the left and right tires on a racing vehicle. It is used on oval tracks to make the car turn better in the corners.
sway unsteadily, reel, or totter
# In standing or walking, to sway from one side to the other as if about to fall; to stand or walk unsteadily; to reel or totter.
#* Dryden
# To cause to reel or totter.
#* Shakespeare
# To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
#* Addison
doubt, waver, be shocked
# To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
#* Bible, Rom. iv. 20
# To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
#* Howell
#* Burke
Multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856
# To arrange (a series of parts) on each side of a median line alternately, as the spokes of a wheel or the rivets of a boiler seam.
# To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next.
# To schedule in intervals.
Creep is a related term of stagger.
As a proper noun creep
is (derogatory) the committee]] to re-elect the president, which raised money for [[w:richard nixon|richard nixon's campaign for 1972 reelection.As a noun stagger is
an unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing, as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion; vertigo; -- often in the plural; as, the stagger of a drunken man.As a verb stagger is
sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.creep
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) crepen, from (etyl) .Verb
- Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
- 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.
- He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
- Prices have been creeping up all year.
- Old age creeps upon us.
- the sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument
- The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.
- The quicksilver on a mirror may creep .
- a creeping sycophant
- to come as humbly as they used to creep
- The sight made my flesh creep .
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 outEtymology 2
From the above verb.Noun
(en noun)- Christmas creep'''. Feature '''creep'''. Instruction '''creep'''. Mission ' creep
- Stop following me, you creep !
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 creepAnagrams
* English irregular verbsstagger
English
Noun
(en noun)Stock Car Racing magazine article on stagger, February 2009
Verb
(en verb)- She began to stagger across the room.
- Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.
- The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.
- That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.
- The enemy staggers .
- He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
- He will stagger the committee when he presents his report.
- Whosoever will read the story of this war will find himself much staggered .
- Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.
Etymology] in [[:w:Online Etymology Dictionary, Online Etymology Dictionary]).
- We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.
- We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers.