creeping

adjective

creep·​ing ˈkrē-piŋ 

: developing or advancing by slow imperceptible degrees

a period of creeping inflation

Synonyms

• crawling
• dallying
• dawdling
• dilatory
• dillydallying
• dragging
• laggard
• lagging
• languid
• leisurely
• poking
• poky
• pokey
• slow
• sluggish
• snail-paced
• snaillike
• tardy
• unhurried

Examples of creeping in a Sentence

at this creeping pace of progress we'll never have the float ready for the parade

Recent Examples on the Web

The overall effect is one of decadence laced with a creeping sense of horror. —Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2023

As a child, she was plagued by anxiety and the creeping sense that adults, especially her mother, were keeping secrets from the kids. —Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Jan. 2023

And yet a creeping sense of dread also suffuses the novel, as a vision of people in chains, first revealed in a mysterious nightmare-inducing sculpture, eats away at everything. —Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, 7 Dec. 2022

Then comes the creeping sense that their conversation is screwy. —Amy Nicholson, Variety, 11 Sep. 2022

For some, once the initial shock wore off, a creeping sense of inevitability set in. —Ruth Madievsky, The Atlantic, 18 July 2022

This growing entanglement of the corporate and social, this creeping sense of being tracked by invisible eyes, demands an increasing sophistication about what is said and where. —Kara Devlin, Longreads, 20 May 2022

As the film moves to the seventh day, a creeping sense of catastrophe settles. —Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Jan. 2022

But beneath the know-it-all tweets, there is a creeping sense that the psychological distance between the masses of 401(k) investors and the billionaire marks may not be that far. —New York Times, 9 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing creeping

• creeping eruption

Rhymes for creeping

• beeping
• heaping
• keeping
• leaping
• peeping
• reaping
• seeping
• sleeping
• steeping
• sweeping
• weeping
• beekeeping