Creep vs Worm - What's the difference?
creep | worm | Synonyms |
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.
A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=7 A contemptible or devious being.
* Bible, Psalms xxii. 6
(computing) A self-replicating program that propagates through a network.
(cricket) A graphical representation of the total runs scored in an innings.
Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
* Moxon
# A spiral instrument or screw, often like a double corkscrew, used for drawing balls from firearms.
# (anatomy) A muscular band in the tongue of some animals, such as dogs; the lytta.
# The condensing tube of a still, often curved and wound to save space.
# A short revolving screw whose threads drive, or are driven by, a worm wheel or rack by gearing into its teeth.
(archaic) A dragon or mythological serpent.
(obsolete) Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake, snail, or caterpillar.
* Tyndale (Acts xxviii. 3, 4)
* Shakespeare
* Longfellow
An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one's mind with remorse.
(math) A strip of linked tiles sharing parallel edges in a tiling.
(label) To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.
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To work one's way by artful or devious means.
*(George Herbert) (1593-1633)
*:When debates and fretting jealousy / Did worm and work within you more and more, / Your colour faded.
To work (one's way or oneself) (into) gradually or slowly; to insinuate.
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To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means; often followed by out .
*(Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
*:They find themselves wormed out of all power.
To "worm out of", to "drag out of" (often: "drag every word out of someone"), to get information that someone is reluctant or unwilling to give (through artful or devious means or by pleading or asking repeatedly). Often combined with expressions such as "It's like pulling teeth" or "It's like getting blood out of a stone".
*(Charles Dickens) (1812-1870)
*:Theywormed things out of me that I had no desire to tell.
*
*:He nodded. "Mum's the word, Mrs. Bunting! It'll all be in the last editions of the evening newspapers—it can't be kep' out. There'd be too much of a row if twas!" ¶ "Are you going off to that public-house now?" she asked. ¶ "I've got a awk'ard job—to try and worm something out of the barmaid."
To fill in the contlines of a rope before parcelling and serving.
:
*1841 ,
*:Ropesare generally wormed before they are served.
(label) To deworm an animal.
(label) To move with one's body dragging the ground.
*1919 , , How animals talk: and other pleasant studies of birds and beast?
*:Inch by inch I wormed along the secret passageway, flat to the ground, not once raising my head, hardly daring to pull a full breath.
(label) To cut the worm, or lytta, from under the tongue of (a dog, etc.) for the purpose of checking a disposition to gnaw, and formerly supposed to guard against canine madness.
*Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
*:The men assisted the laird in his sporting parties, wormed his dogs, and cut the ears of his terrier puppies.
(label) To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge from, as a firearm.
In intransitive terms the difference between creep and worm
is that creep is to make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction while worm is to move with one's body dragging the ground.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
- 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 verbsworm
English
Noun
(en noun)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. […]’}}
- I am a worm , and no man.
- The threads of screws, when bigger than can be made in screw plates, are called worms .
- There came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. When the men of the country saw the worm hang on his hand, they said, This man must needs be a murderer.
- 'Tis slander, / Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue / Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.
- When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm , / His mouth he opened and displayed his tusks.
- — Richard III ,
Verb
(en verb)Benjamin J. Totten], [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=w0VJAAAAYAAJ Naval Text-Book:
