creep

creep vb Creep, crawl mean to move slowly along a surface in a prone or crouching position.

Creep is more often used of quadrupeds or of human beings who move on all fours and proceed slowly, stealthily, or silently

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a baby creeps before it walks

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crouching down ... in a corner ... he made out the three fishermen creeping through some rank grass— Dickens

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and crawl of elongated animals with no legs (as snakes and some worms) or with many small legs (as centipedes) that seem to move by drawing the body along the ground or a surface, or of human beings who imitate such movement

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when she saw the snake crawling along the path, she screamed

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he was so badly injured that he could only crawl to the open door

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In extended use both words often imply intolerable slowness

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tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day— Shak.

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that sad, disappointing, disillusioning . . . war crawled through that bitter winter of defeat— Rose Macaulay

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Both often imply a slow movement of a person, especially into another's favor or into a given status or position, but creep usually suggests stealthy and insinuating methods

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creep along the hedge-bottoms, an' thou'll be a bishop yet— Tennyson

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even in later and more enlightened times, the study of literature has crept its way into official Cambridge— Quiller-Couch

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and crawl, procedure by abjectness, servility, cringing, or groveling

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Cranmer . . . hath crawled into the favor of the king— Shak.

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pomp-fed king ... art thou not the veriest slave that e'er crawled on the loathing earth?— Shelley

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Both also imply a sensation such as might be produced by lice, fleas, or other human or animal parasites, but creep suggests a shivering, nervous reaction, and crawl, an intense feeling of distress and discomfort

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something in their countenances that made my flesh creep with a horror I cannot express— Swift

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his flesh was crawling with the need of alcohol— Doherty

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