Sneak vs. Creep — What's the Difference?

To go or move in a quiet, stealthy way.

Move slowly and carefully in order to avoid being heard or noticed

To behave in a cowardly or servile manner.

(of a negative characteristic or fact) occur or develop gradually and almost imperceptibly

To move, give, take, or put in a quiet, stealthy manner

A detestable person

A person regarded as stealthy, cowardly, or underhanded.

Slow steady movement, especially when imperceptible

An instance of sneaking; a quiet, stealthy movement.

An opening in a hedge or wall for an animal to pass through

(Informal) A sneaker.

Solid food given to young farm animals in order to wean them

Carried out in a clandestine manner

To move with the body close to the ground, as on hands and knees.

Perpetrated without warning

To move stealthily or cautiously.

One who sneaks; one who moves stealthily to acquire an item or information.

To move or proceed very slowly

The act of sneaking

To grow or spread along a surface, rooting at intervals or clinging by means of suckers or tendrils.

A cheat; a con artist.

To grow horizontally under the ground, as the rhizomes of many plants.

An informer; a tell-tale.

To slip out of place; shift gradually.

A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; a daisy-cutter

To have a tingling sensation, made by or as if by things moving stealthily

(US) A sneaker; a tennis shoe.

The act of creeping; a creeping motion or progress.

(American football) A play where the quarterback receives the snap and immediately dives forward.

(Slang) An annoyingly unpleasant, unsettling, or repulsive person.

(intransitive) To creep or go stealthily; to come or go while trying to avoid detection, as a person who does not wish to be seen.

A slow flow of metal when under high temperature or great pressure.

(transitive) To take something stealthily without permission.

A slow change in a characteristic of electronic equipment, such as a decrease in power with continued usage.

(ditransitive) To stealthily bring someone something.

A usually unplanned and gradual shift or increase in uses or objectives away from what was originally specified or limited. Often used in combination

To hide, especially in a mean or cowardly manner.

(Geology) The slow movement of rock debris and soil down a weathered slope.

To inform an authority of another's misdemeanours.

Creeps Informal A sensation of fear or repugnance, as if things were crawling on one's skin

In advance; before release to the general public.

(intransitive) To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.

In a stealthy or surreptitious manner.

To grow across a surface rather than upwards.

To creep or steal (away or about) privately; to come or go meanly, as a person afraid or ashamed to be seen; as, to sneak away from company.

(intransitive) To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.

To act in a stealthy and cowardly manner; to behave with meanness and servility; to crouch.

(intransitive) To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.

To hide, esp. in a mean or cowardly manner.

To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.

A mean, sneaking fellow.

To slip, or to become slightly displaced.

A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; - called also grub.

To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.

Someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions

To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.

Someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police

To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.

To go stealthily or furtively;

To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.

Put, bring, or take in a secretive or furtive manner;

The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails).

Make off with belongings of others

A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.

Pass on stealthily;

A slight displacement of an object; the slight movement of something.

Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed;

(uncountable) 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.

Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric.

A frightening and/or disconcerting person, especially one who gives the speaker chills.

(agriculture) A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.

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.

To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.

To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self; as, age creeps upon us.

To slip, or to become slightly displaced; as, the collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying; the quicksilver on a mirror may creep.

To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.

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.

To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.

The act or process of creeping.

A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects.

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.

Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric

A slow longitudinal movement or deformation

A pen that is fenced so that young animals can enter but adults cannot

A slow creeping mode of locomotion (on hands and knees or dragging the body);

Move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground;

To go stealthily or furtively;

Grow in such a way as to cover (a building, for example);

Show submission or fear