Creepy-crawly

adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any small crawling animal such as a spider, insect or worm that is unpleasant. informal

    "Mattresses were either spring or made of old straw, and sometimes contained little creepy-crawlies."

  2. 2
    An automated suction pool cleaner. Australia, informal
  3. 3
    an animal that creeps or crawls (such as worms or spiders or insects) wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Unpleasant, repulsive.

    "[…] and slimy, creepy-crawly dungeons with chains for your hands and feet; […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    causing a sensation as of things crawling on your skin wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
creepycreepy crawler

Example

More examples

"Mattresses were either spring or made of old straw, and sometimes contained little creepy-crawlies."

Etymology

A partial appellativization of Kreepy Krauly, a brand name, from Etymology 1.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.