creep

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To move with the body close to the ground, as on hands and knees.
• intransitive verb To move stealthily or cautiously.
• intransitive verb To move or proceed very slowly.
• intransitive verb To grow or spread along a surface, rooting at intervals or clinging by means of suckers or tendrils.
• intransitive verb To grow horizontally under the ground, as the rhizomes of many plants.
• intransitive verb To slip out of place; shift gradually.
• intransitive verb To have a tingling sensation, made by or as if by things moving stealthily.
• noun The act of creeping; a creeping motion or progress.
• noun Slang An annoyingly unpleasant or repulsive person.
• noun A slow flow of metal when under high temperature or great pressure.
• noun A slow change in a characteristic of electronic equipment, such as a decrease in power with continued usage.
• noun A usually unplanned and gradual shift or increase in uses or objectives away from what was originally specified or limited. Often used in combination.
• noun Geology The slow movement of rock debris and soil down a weathered slope.
• noun Informal A sensation of fear or repugnance, as if things were crawling on one's skin.

from The Century Dictionary.

• In chem., to rise above the surface of the liquid upon the walls of the containing-vessel, like salt crystals in an evaporating-dish.
• noun Same as creeper, 6 .
• noun In geology, the extremely slow downward movement of disintegrated rock on hillsides. Ground-water, frost, and changes of temperature are the chief factors in such movement.
• To move with the body near or touching the ground, as a reptile or an insect, a cat stealthily approaching its prey, or an infant on hands and knees.
• In botany: To grow prostrate along the ground or other surface.
• To grow below the surface, as rooting shoots. A creeping plant usually fastens itself by roots to the surface upon which it grows.
• To move along, or from place to place, slowly, feebly, or timorously; move imperceptibly, as time.
• To move secretly; move so as to escape detection or evade suspicion; enter unobserved.
• To move or behave with extreme servility or humility; move as if affected with a sense of humiliation or terror.
• To have a sensation as of worms or insects creeping on the skin: as, the sight made my flesh creep.
• To move longitudinally: said of the rails of a railroad.
• Synonyms Crawl, Creep. See crawl.
• noun The act of creeping.
• noun In coal-mining, the apparent rising of the floor, or under-clay, of the mine between the pillars, or where the roof is not fully supported, caused by the pressure of the superincumbent strata.
• noun plural A sensation as of something crawling over one; a sensation as of shivering. See creep, v. i., 6. Also called creepers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To move along the ground, or on any other surface, on the belly, as a worm or reptile; to move as a child on the hands and knees; to crawl.
• transitive verb To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
• transitive verb To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self.
• transitive verb To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
• transitive verb To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
• transitive verb To grow, as a vine, clinging to the ground or to some other support by means of roots or rootlets, or by tendrils, along its length.
• transitive verb To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl. See Crawl, v. i., 4.
• transitive verb To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
• noun The act or process of creeping.
• noun A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects.
• noun (Mining) A slow rising of the floor of a gallery, occasioned by the pressure of incumbent strata upon the pillars or sides; a gradual movement of mining ground.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails)
• noun A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
• noun A slight displacement of an object: the slight movement of something
• noun The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively.
• noun 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.
• noun materials science An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
• noun geology The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.