Heading
1848. Bartlett, Dict. of Amer. 'Proverbs.' When a man runs his head against a post, he curses the post first, all creation next, and something else last, and never thinks of cursing himself.
1862. Among the Mermaids. 'An Old Sailor's Yarn,' p. 86. The notion of finding the capting's cask pleased me mightily cos I knowed it would tickle the old man like all creation.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 14 Aug. I'm willin' to take advice. Beats all creation how I mistook, but I shan't go agin yer words.
Creeme, verb (old).—To slip or
slide anything into the hands of
another.—Grose [1785].
Creeper, subs. (general).—One
who cringes and 'curries favour';
a 'skunk,' or snide (q.v., for
synonyms).
Creepers, subs. (common).—1.
The feet.
English Synonyms. Dew-beaters; beetle-crushers; under-*standings; trotters; tootsies; stumps (also the legs); everlasting shoes; hocks; boot-trees; pasterns; ards (Old Cant: now used as an adjective, = 'hot'); double-breasters; daisy-beaters; kickers; crabs; trampers; hockles; hoofs; pudseys.
French Synonyms. Les trottins (popular: trottiner, to go a jog-trot; aller chercher les pardons de Saint-Trottin, to take a walk instead of going to church); les reposoirs (common: properly [in sing.] a resting place or pause; also an altar set up in the streets for a procession); les ripatons (popular); les palerons (thieves': properly, in sing., a shoulder-blade); les paturons (thieves': properly pasterns); les harpions (thieves': also hands. Cotgrave has harpe d'un chien = a dog's claw or paw; also, Il mania très bien ses harpes, He stirred his fingers very nimbly. [Cf., 'pickers and stealers' = fingers]; les mains courantes (popular: literally running hands).
German Synonyms. Tretter (Cf., English 'trotter'); Trittling, or Trittchen (Hanoverian = shoe, boot, foot, or staircase); Trittlingspflanzer or Trittlingsmelochner (the shoemaker).
Italian Synonyms Calcioso; pisante; bottiero; mazzo.
2. (general).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates.
Creeps, subs. (common).—The
peculiar thrill resulting from an
undefinable sense of dread.
[Literally a 'crawling' of the
flesh as with fear.] Also known
as goose-flesh, cold shivers,
and cold water down the
back.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers. I wants to make yer flesh creep.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xiii. [Late Autumn.] Dreary down in the old country mansions . . . where the servants, town-bred, commence to be colded, sniffy, to have shivers and creeps.
1870. London Figaro, 27 June. 'A River Romance.' Talking about bodies, I could give you the creeps with what I've seen.
1883. The Lute, 15 Jan., p. 18, col. 2. We see the great tragedian holding on to a chair, and giving his audience creeps with the 'Dream of Eugene Aram.'
1890. Globe, 22 May, p. 1, col. 4. Miss Gertrude is the sister of Mrs. Chanler-Rives (better known as Amélie, or still better as the writer of The Quick or the Dead, by which many ladylike persons have been given 'the creeps').
Crevecœur.—See Heart-*breaker.
