creeper
(ˈkriːpə(r))
Forms: 1 créopere, 4–6 creper(e, 6 crepar, 6– creeper.
[f. creep v. + -er.]
1. a. One who creeps. (In quot. 1883, a child too young to walk.)
| a 1000 Glostr. Frag. 12. 17 (Bosw.) Seo ealde cyrce wæs eall behangen mid criccum and mid creopera sceamelum. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 101 Crepere, or he þat crepythe, reptor. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. lx. 35 A creper with spiders, and a flier with flise. 1682 Otway Venice Pres. v. ii, All us little creepers in 't, called men. 1883 J. Parker Apost. Life II. 256 The door must not be shut..until the last little creeper has been brought in and sat at the Father's table. |
b. fig. One who moves stealthily, timidly, or abjectly, or proceeds in a mean and servile way.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxiv. (Arb.) 299 Sometimes a creeper, and a curry-fauell with his superiours. 1598 Florio, Insinuatore, a craftie slie creeper into ones bosome, fauor or minde. c 1605 Rowley Birth Merl. iii. vi, A gilded rascal, A low-bred despicable creeper. 1631 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. (1641) 360 They were..no strutters in the streets, but despicable creepers. 1811 Lamb Trag. Shaks., The servilest creeper after nature that ever consulted the palate of an audience. |
† c. slang. A ‘penny-a-liner’; see quot.
| 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 241 A creeper is one who furnishes the newspapers with paragraphs at so much a line. 1825 T. Lister Granby lx. (1836) 425 Persons, called, in the slang of the trade, ‘creepers’, whose business it is to prowl about, collecting incidents for the newspapers. |
d. pl. (a) The feet; (b) shoes with soft soles. Also attrib. (in sing.). Cf. brothel-creeper. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 280/1 Creepers..(American), the feet. 1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 247 Creepers, soft shoes worn by burglars, sneak-thieves and prison guards. 1924 G. C. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 402 Creepers, rubber-soled shoes. Also called sneaks. 1951 Sunday Pictorial 29 Oct., Fancy shoes with thick crepe-rubber wedge soles which are known to connoisseurs as ‘creepers’. 1955 E. Blishen Roaring Boys iv. 210 He pointed to my shoes, which were new and crape-soled. ‘They're creepers... Real up-to-the-minute yobo's thick⁓soled creepers.’ 1961 M. Dickens Heart of London i. 67 The two-inch soles of their ‘creeper’ shoes. |
2. a. An animal that creeps, a creeping thing, an insect or reptile; spec. (in vulgar speech) a louse.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 147 b, You shall be sure to have neither Mite nor Creeper in your Cheese. 1609 Bible (Douay) Gen. vii. 21 Al creepers, that creepe upon the earth. 1651 Miller of Mansf. 8 Hast any Creepers within thy gay Hose? 1673 S. C. Rules of Civility 61 'Tis unbecoming..to scratch..as if there were Creepers upon our backs. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine 200 A mounted gendarme would probably disdain to pursue a creeper. |
b. Angling. The larva of the Stone-fly.
| 1867 F. Francis Angling (1876) 264 The crab or creeper is the larva of the stone fly. |
c. Poultry-rearing. ‘One of a breed of fowls with legs so short that they jump rather than walk’.
| 1847 W. B. Dickson Poultry 15 The Dwarf Fowl, or Creeper (Gallus Bankiva, S. pumilio, Temminck, Le Coq Nain, Buffon). 1885 in Annandale. |
3. A name given to many small birds, of different families, which run or climb up and down the branches of trees and bushes; esp. the common Brown Creeper or Tree-creeper, Certhia familiaris.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Birds..not melodious, as the..witwal, creeper, wren. 1674 Ray Eng. Birds 84 The Creeper or Ox-eye Creeper. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) I. 193 The creeper..next to the crested wren is the least of the British birds. 1863 Bates Nat. Amazon vii. (1864) 203 Many pretty little blue and green creepers of the Dacnidæ group were daily seen feeding on berries. 1882 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. 553 No Gold-crests or Creepers, and rarely any Wrens were seen. |
4. a. A plant that creeps along the ground, or (more usually) one that ascends a supporting surface, as ivy and the Virginian Creeper (Ampelopsis hederacea); a climber.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §536 They are Winders and Creepers; as Ivy, Briony, Hops, Woodbine. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 31 This Plant is a Creeper, and twines or lashes itself round any Tree that is near it. 1721 Bradley Wks. Nature 37 The Ivy, and Virginia Creeper. 1818 Keats Endym. ii. 416 The creeper, mellowing for an autumn blush. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 60 Primeval labyrinths of giant trees, tangled with ten thousand creepers. |
b. (pl.) Arch. ‘Leaves or clusters of foliage used in Gothic edifices to ornament the angles of spires, pinnacles, and other parts; crochets.’
| 1864 in Webster. |
5. A kind of grapnel used for dragging the bottom of the sea or other body of water.
In first quot. app. used of a grappling-iron.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3667 Cogge appone cogge, krayers and oþer, Castys crepers one crosse als to þe crafte langes. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 106 He perist in Loch Tay..His body was found be creparis. 1730 Capt. W. Wriglesworth MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell’ 24 July, We sweaped with a Creeper for the Hawser, which we got hold of. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Creeper, an instrument of iron resembling a grappling, having a shank and four hooks or claws..It is used to throw into the bottom of any river or harbour..to hook and draw up any thing..lost. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Creepers..2. Grapnels to bring up any thing from the bottom of a well or pond. 1875 Wilcocks Sea-Fisherman (ed. 3) 40 The Grapnel or Creeper Sinker is much used off Dartmouth..on account of the strength of the tidal currents..These creepers have five claws. 1888 T. Hardy Wessex Tales II. 143. |
† 6. A small iron ‘dog’, of which a pair were placed on a hearth between the andirons. Obs.
| 1556 Inv. Goods in Archæol. XXXVI. 289 A payre of crepers. 1565 Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 178, j. olde brandrethe..j. iron creper. 1629 Inv. in Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc. III. ii. 167, i p{supr} creepers, fire shovell and tonges. 1661 Prynne Exam. Exub. Com. Prayer 106 The little Creepers, not the great Brass shining Andirons, bear up all the wood, and heat of the fire. 1833 J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 162 The andirons proper..and what were denominated creepers, a smaller sort, with short necks or none at all. |
7. local. a. A kind of patten or clog worn by women. b. A piece of iron with points or spikes, worn under the feet to prevent slipping on ice, etc.
| 1721 Bailey, Creepers, a sort of Galoshes, between Clogs and Pattens, worn by Women. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Creepers, 1. Low pattens mounted on short iron stumps, instead of rings. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Creepers, pieces of iron, furnished with sharp points and strapped under the feet, to prevent one falling when walking upon ice. 1887 Newcastle Wkly. Chron. 1 Jan. 4 Ice-creepers are now on sale in certain shops of Newcastle. |
8. = creep n. 4.
| 1845 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VI. i. 189 That..lambs may..have more liberty, and pick out the shortest and sweetest of the keep, I have ‘creepers’ placed to enable them to do so. |
9. a. An apparatus for conveying grain in corn-mills, a conveyor. b. An endless moving feeding-apron, in a carding-machine.
| 1847 Engineer & Mach. Assistant (Descr. Plates) 92 The creeper..constructed by Mr. Fairbairn. 1865 Sir W. Fairbairn Mills & Mill-work ii. 140 The creeper consists of a long enclosed screw with a wide pitch and projecting thin threads enclosed in a wooden box or trough. |
10. A small iron frying-pan with three legs; also called a spider. (U.S. local.)
| 1880 in Webster Supp. |
11. A pupil in the tea-planting trade, esp. in Ceylon.
| 1893 Field 8 Apr. 510/3 ‘Creepers’, as they are called, are constantly coming out to learn tea. 1894 Standard 2 Jan. 5 A ‘creeper’, it seems, is the technical term for a pupil whose parents pay a high premium to have him taught the art and mystery of tea-planting in Ceylon. 1921 Ld. F. Hamilton Here, There & Everywhere ii. 48 [In Ceylon] Planters are divided locally into three categories: the managers,..the assistants,..and the premium-pupils, known as ‘creepers’. 1931 E. Sutton tr. Fauconnier's Soul of Malaya i. iii. 30 The conceit of these blasted little creepers! |
12. Cricket. A ball which keeps low after pitching.
| 1848 Punch Almanack May–June, Till some ‘ripper’ or ‘creeper’ gives the great wicket-keeper A chance. 1927 Daily Tel. 14 June 6/1 A ‘creeper’ from Larwood got rid of Twining. 1963 Times 17 May 4/5 Ormrod had to deal with three astonishing creepers from the lively Arnold. |
13. Comb., as (sense 4) creeper-clad, creeper-covered adjs.
| 1884 G. Allen Philistia I. 292 His pretty latticed creeper-clad window. 1888 Daily News 25 June 6/3 The cool woods and creeper-covered rocks. |
b. creeper bridge, rope, a bridge or rope of twisted creepers stretched across a tropical river; creeper chain Mining, an endless chain fitted with grips or hooks for traction of mine-cars, etc.
| 1892 H. W. Hughes Coal-mining 383 No better appliance has been introduced for minimising the cost of conveying tubs about the heapstead than that known as the ‘finger’ or ‘creeper’ chain... It consists of an endless chain travelling under the tubs, provided at intervals with vertical projecting pieces of iron fastened to the links. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 16 Jan. 5/3 A creeper rope tied from bank to bank. 1909 Ibid. 30 Dec. 5/4 We finally managed to get another creeper bridge between the island and the opposite bank, and hauled the women and children to a place of safety. |
Hence ˈcreepered ppl. a., having (Virginia) creeper growing on the walls; ˈcreeperless a., without such a creeper.
| 1894 Pall Mall Gaz. 20 July 3/3 Down in the hollow is a glimpse of the creepered farmhouse. 1938 L. MacNeice Earth Compels 21 A chart of tropic Swamp and twilight Of creepered curtains. |
| 1904 H. G. Wells Food of Gods i. ii. §1 The little house was creeperless. |