Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a stealthy robber, a sneak thief, esp. one who works in a brothel.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 26: creep [...] Current amongst crooked pimps. A creeper, a crawler. who searches the clothes of a victim while the latter is abed with the creep’s paramour.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 255: I have been a badger, pay-off, note-layer, creep, panel, and blackmailer.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 52/2: Creep. [...] 2. A petty thief, especially a door-matter, one who steals clothing from clotheslines, etc.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 9: Sapphire Harris is generally acknowledged to be the finest Creep in the business.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1989		in G. Tremlett Little Legs 193: creep thief.

2. (also creep act, ...game) the profession of sneak-thieving, esp. when pursued in a brothel.

1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May: Her Story in Hamilton (1952) 130: Let me turn now to creeps. This branch, as its name implies, is pulled off by a confederate, who sneaks up to and robs the man’s clothes while he is otherwise engaged. [...] The creeping may be done from under the bed, from an adjoining room, from a closet, or even from a large trunk.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 258: It’ll have to be done at the creep when she’s in bed.
1958		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Feb. 13: Hallway stickups, strong-arm jobs and ‘creep’ acts performed on the trousers of guests in [...] cat flats .
1967		B. Gonzales I Paid My Dues 97: ‘The Creep game’ where one girl actually does the physical work while another would rob the victims pockets.

3. an unpleasant person, with poss. implication of some physical peculiarity or of criminality [orig. dial.].

1928		J. March Wild Party (1968) 111: Jesus Christ, what a stupid creep.
1937		C. Odets Golden Boy III iii: Listen, you creep! Why don’t you change your tune for a minute!
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 135: He [...] fell in with those creeps who have connections with the clubs.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 6: The little creep got on the other side of him.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: The creep. The stupid nit!
1962		M.K. Joseph Pound of Saffron 203: Jeez, what a creep.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 38: ‘You are nothing but an egotistical creep who doesn’t know how to treat any girl’.
1968		F. Exley Fan’s Notes 141: [of a woman] If we were lucky--or not, as the case might be--we ended in the sack with some long-legged, energetic, none-too-bright airline hostess who afterward wept while we assured her of our undying devotion, even as we plotted how to get rid of the creep.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 32: The other smart kids would nothing to do with him because he was such a creep.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 97: I snarled like a thirties movie gangster: ‘Leave off tapping my blower, yuh lousy creeps’.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 15: I don’t care what you do [...] but you’re not taking this creep into my house.
1984		P. Corris ‘Marriages Are Made in Heaven’ in Heroin Annie [e-book] There seems to be some creep hanging around Selina’s flat.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 31: Likes to model, but hates some of the creeps who take the pictures.
1992		E. St Aubyn ‘Never Mind’ in Some Hope (1994) 92: I thought that Nicholas Pratt was a total creep.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] That creep in Sydney I told you about. The regional director?
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 157: ‘What a slimy little creep.’ [...] ‘They’re all slimy little creeps.
2004		T. Winton ‘Cockleshell’ in Turning (2005) 131: What a lurker he must have been, what a creep!
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 346: There will always be a certain echelon of street creep using drugs, gullibility [...] and a bullshit rap.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 69: Daein ma airm the wey that Swanney creep showed us.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 206: ‘You’re a fucking creep, bro. I know you’re getting those girls strung out on drugs. You’re scum!’.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 114: [T]he main purpose of the note is to let Mikey know that Nick is a creep.

4. departure, esp. surreptitious.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Beating a creep around a slider, to escape from the law, especially when being trailed by the police.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 129: The Chicagoans [...] were pulling a creep in a dozen different directions, each one trailing his own personal rainbow.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 177: Everybody loves and hates and has babies and pulls creeps.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 206: They don’t catch us as much because we just got our little secret creeps.

5. (US black) a clandestine meeting; e.g. for adultery.

1930		C. Gibson ‘Keep Your Windows Pinned’ 🎵 I catch the Central Park car, ride it down to Summer Street / [...] / Catch my baby out on a midnight creep [...] You oughta buy a bulldog to watch us whilst we sleep / So he can see your husband if he makes a ‘fore-day creep.
1943		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 13 Mar. 13: To Little Joe [i.e. an absent soldier’s wife’s lover] I’ll lose no sleep, Ole Man, while you cop your creep.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 129/2: creep n. A clandestine meeting or mission.

6. (drugs) an addict who begs or barters services for their narcotics rather than resorting to crime to obtain the funds to buy them.

1969

R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 72: creep An addict who, because of fear, incompetence, or isolation, does not engage in risky, criminal activities to raise money for drugs but rather begs them, does errands, or lends out a hypodermic needle in exchange for a taste of someone else’s drugs.

7. a spree.

1884		Sporting Times 23 Aug. 5/3: E & the dokter ave gorn orf in a four-wheeler, on wot they corl a whisky creep.
1970		Grateful Dead ‘Good Lovin’’ 🎵 I came home one morning / I’d been out on a four-day creep. / Drinking and gambling.

8. stealthiness; the ability to be unnoticed.

2002		Simon & Burns ‘Old Cases’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 4 [TV script] I got some creep to me. And my uncle he knows that.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 11: Robbing a sales assistant inside a shop? No creep, no stealth, no nothing.

9. see creep joint n. (1)