Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a toady, a sycophant.

1622		Rowley & Shakespeare Birth of Merlin (1662) III i: Peace you pernicious Rat [...] Away, suffer a gilded rascal, a low-bred despicable creeper, and insulting Toad, to spit poison’d venom in my face!
1832		Satirist (London) 18 Mar. 90/3: This little Tory creeper has since become professor of ‘Swing’ principles [...] inasmuch as they tend to visit the Thames with a general conflagration.

2. a louse.

1606		Return from Parnassus Pt II V iv: Are rymes become such creepers now a days? Presumptuous louse, that doth good manners lack, Daring to creepe vpon Poet Furors back.
1656		Mennis & Smith ‘The Louse’s Peregrination’ Musarum Deliciae (1817) 48: My father and mother, when they first join’d paunches, / Begot me between an old Pedlars haunches; / When grown to a creeper, I know how a pox I / Got to suck by chance of the bloud of his doxie.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 19: As he was thus searching, pretendly for the Creepers, up he starts.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Creepers. Gentlemen’s companions, lice.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		Fun for the Million 491/2: Hast thou noe creepers within thy gay hose? [...] Art thou not lowsey, nor scabby?
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1950, 1965–70		in DARE.

3. a penny-a-line hack journalist.

1824		‘Geoffrey Crayon’ Tales of A Traveller (1850) 155: ‘Creeper! and pray what is that?’ said I. ‘Oh, sir, I see you are ignorant of the language of the craft; a creeper is one who furnishes the newspapers with paragraphs at so much a line. [...] We are paid at the rate of a penny a line.’.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 268/2: from ca. 1820; † by 1890.

4. (Und./police) a sneak-thief, esp. when also a prostitute or her accomplice.

1906		in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 9 June 6: She acted as ‘creeper,’ explaining that the ‘creeper’ did not really creep, but walked to the victim’s clothes.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 277: I rushed him hard. He hung up his clothes, almost over the head of the man I had planted in the room. The creeper got four hundred dollars, in the twinkle of an eye, and slid out.
1931		(con. 1900s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 72: In the sporting Negro quarter, the creepers frequently were armed with razors.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 197: Heartbroken bummies and the bitter rebels: afternoon prowlers and midnight creepers.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 93: There were creepers and kleptoes and zanies and dipsos.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 38: Billy had been a creeper at one time, who made his living by breaking into homes and apartments.
1971		Winick & Kinsie Lively Commerce 27: Some prostitutes have associates (‘creepers’). [...] The ‘creeper’ quietly goes through the client’s trousers and takes his money.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 201: Solo creeper Sneak thief operating absolutely alone.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 102: Such a creeper often is a prostitute who supplements her income by creeping out from beneath a bed and stealing a customer’s money.
1998		M. Baker Bad Guys 17: This is Howard talking, jailhouse lawyer [...] and former creeper.
2004		Guardian 23 Jan. 6: ‘Creepers,’ highly skilled burglars who will go to great lengths to avoid confrontation.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 280: Some sneak thief [...] some creeper.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 7: My gang cadged cash and dope. They were 2:00 a.m. creepers.

5. (orig. US black) an adulterous or cheating lover.

1911		Journal of Amer. Folklore 24 354: The ‘creeper’ watches his chance to get admittance into a home, unknown to the husband.
1925		Odum & Johnson Negro and His Songs (1964) 190: Buddy, stop an’ let me tell you / What yo’ woman’ll do: / She have ’nuther man in, play sick on you. / She got all-night creeper, buddy, / An’ you can’t git in.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 213: Haven’t you heard of the famous Creeper? [...] Lives off women, a true Eastman. He’s the sheik of the dives.
1931		N. Van Patten ‘Vocab. of the Amer. Negro’ in AS VII:1 27: creeper V. n. A man who invades another’s marital rights.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 24: I would even let that creeper take a hand at the table.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 36: The man doing the cuckolding may be a creeper, a term which occurs frequently in many contexts.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 117: Tae is a creeper; he’s been flirting with Tyreeka since the day she moved into the neighborhood.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 209: Libby thought Ricky was a creeper. She’d seen Ricky make out with a 17-year-old girl!

6. (US black) a police officer.

1946		Drake & Cayton Black Metropolis 568: I wisht they’da let them creepers take you to the station!
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 395: Nicknames current among boys [...] Creeper, Crook Catcher.

7. a burglary committed when the owners are at home.

1992

in R. Graef Living Dangerously 188: I preferred to do creepers — burglaries when people are in the house.

8. (teen) a socially inept individual.

2019

www.verywellfamily.com/a-teen-slang-dictionary 10 Mar. 🌐 Creeper - Someone who is socially awkward or tends to have stalker tendencies.

9. see creep joint n. (3)