Cheap vs. Creep — What's the Difference?
By Fiza Rafique & Urooj Arif — Updated on May 19, 2024
Cheap means low in cost or quality, while creep refers to moving slowly and quietly or a person behaving in a disturbing way.
Difference Between Cheap and Creep
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Cheap refers to something that is low in cost or price, often implying poor quality or value. It can describe both physical items, like cheap clothes, and abstract concepts, such as cheap jokes, which lack depth or quality. Creep, on the other hand, has multiple meanings. As a verb, it means to move slowly and quietly to avoid detection, like someone creeping through the house at night.
While cheap focuses on the affordability and quality of something, creep centers around movement or unsettling behavior. Cheap can describe a bargain or a subpar product, whereas creep can describe both a physical action and an uncomfortable social interaction.
In everyday language, cheap is commonly used to discuss the price or value of items, while creep is often used to describe someone's unsettling behavior or stealthy movement.
Comparison Chart
Definition
Low in cost or quality
Move slowly/quietly or a disturbing person
Connotation
Often negative, implying poor quality
Negative, implying unsettling behavior
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Usage Context
Describing price, value, or quality
Describing movement or behavior
Example Use
Cheap clothes, cheap joke
Creep through the room, that guy's a creep
Common Associations
Bargains, low-cost items
Stealth, unsettling individuals
Compare with Definitions
Cheap
Low in cost or price.
She bought a cheap pair of sunglasses at the market.
Creep
To move slowly and quietly.
He tried to creep past the sleeping dog.
Cheap
Costing little effort or money.
They took a cheap shot at him during the debate.
Creep
A person who behaves in an unsettling or disturbing way.
That guy at the party was such a creep.
Cheap
Stingy or miserly.
He is known for being cheap and never tipping well.
Creep
A feeling of unease or discomfort.
She got the creeps walking down the dark alley.
Cheap
Low in price, especially in relation to similar items or services
Local buses were reliable and cheap
Creep
Move slowly and carefully in order to avoid being heard or noticed
He crept downstairs, hardly making any noise
They were taught how to creep up on an enemy
Cheap
Of little worth because achieved in a discreditable way requiring little effort
Her moment of cheap triumph
Creep
(of a negative characteristic or fact) occur or develop gradually and almost imperceptibly
Errors crept into his game
Cheap
At or for a low price
A house that was going cheap because of the war
Creep
A detestable person
I thought he was a nasty little creep
Cheap
Relatively low in cost; inexpensive or comparatively inexpensive.
Creep
Slow steady movement, especially when imperceptible
An attempt to prevent this slow creep of costs
Cheap
Charging low prices
A cheap restaurant.
Creep
An opening in a hedge or wall for an animal to pass through
Low in the wall are creeps, through which ewes gain access to grazing from the pastures behind
Cheap
Obtainable at a low rate of interest. Used especially of money.
Creep
Solid food given to young farm animals in order to wean them
We've started to wean the lambs earlier and to keep them on creep
Cheap
Devalued, as in buying power
Cheap dollars.
Creep
To move with the body close to the ground, as on hands and knees.
Cheap
Achieved with little effort
A cheap victory.
Cheap laughs.
Creep
To move stealthily or cautiously.
Cheap
Of or considered of small value
In wartime, when life was cheap.
Creep
To move or proceed very slowly
Traffic creeps at that hour.
Cheap
Of poor quality; inferior
A cheap toy.
Creep
To grow or spread along a surface, rooting at intervals or clinging by means of suckers or tendrils.
Cheap
Worthy of no respect; vulgar or contemptible
A cheap gangster.
Creep
To grow horizontally under the ground, as the rhizomes of many plants.
Cheap
Stingy; miserly.
Creep
To slip out of place; shift gradually.
Cheap
Inexpensively
Got the new car cheap.
Creep
To have a tingling sensation, made by or as if by things moving stealthily
A moan that made my flesh creep.
Cheap
(obsolete) Trade; traffic; chaffer; chaffering.
Creep
The act of creeping; a creeping motion or progress.
Cheap
(obsolete) A market; marketplace.
Creep
(Slang) An annoyingly unpleasant, unsettling, or repulsive person.
Cheap
Price.
Creep
A slow flow of metal when under high temperature or great pressure.
Cheap
(obsolete) A low price; a bargain.
Creep
A slow change in a characteristic of electronic equipment, such as a decrease in power with continued usage.
Cheap
Cheapness; lowness of price; abundance of supply. en
Creep
A usually unplanned and gradual shift or increase in uses or objectives away from what was originally specified or limited. Often used in combination
The function creep of using social security numbers for general identification purposes.
Mission creep from a military peacekeeping role to one of providing economic development.
Cheap
Low and/or reduced in price.
Creep
(Geology) The slow movement of rock debris and soil down a weathered slope.
Cheap
Of poor quality.
Creep
Creeps Informal A sensation of fear or repugnance, as if things were crawling on one's skin
That house gives me the creeps.
Cheap
Of little worth.
Creep
(intransitive) To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
Lizards and snakes crept over the ground.
Cheap
Underhand or unfair.
The cheap trick of hiding deadly lava under pushable blocks
Creep
To grow across a surface rather than upwards.
Cheap
Stingy; mean; excessively frugal.
Insurance is expensive, but don't be so cheap that you risk losing your home because of a fire.
Creep
(intransitive) To move slowly and quietly in a particular direction.
He tried to creep past the guard without being seen.
Cheap
(finance) Trading at a price level which is low relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.
The ETF is trading cheap to NAV right now; we can arb this by buying the ETF and selling the underlying constituents.
Creep
(intransitive) To make small gradual changes, usually in a particular direction.
Prices have been creeping up all year.
Cheap
To trade; traffic; bargain; chaffer; ask the price of goods; cheapen goods.
Creep
To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or oneself.
Old age creeps upon us.
Cheap
To bargain for; chaffer for; ask the price of; offer a price for; cheapen.
Creep
To slip, or to become slightly displaced.
The collodion on a negative, or a coat of varnish, may creep in drying.
The quicksilver on a mirror may creep.
Cheap
To buy; purchase.
Creep
To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn.
A creeping sycophant.
Cheap
To sell.
Creep
To have a sensation as of insects creeping on the skin of the body; to crawl.
The sight made my flesh creep.
Cheap
Cheaply.
Creep
To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
Cheap
A bargain; a purchase; cheapness.
The sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe.
Creep
To covertly have sex (with a person other than one's primary partner); to cheat with.
Cheap
Having a low price in market; of small cost or price, as compared with the usual price or the real value.
Where there are a great sellers to a few buyers, there the thing to be sold will be cheap.
Creep
The movement of something that creeps (like worms or snails).
Cheap
Of comparatively small value; common; mean.
You grow cheap in every subject's eye.
Creep
A relatively small gradual change, variation or deviation (from a planned value) in a measure.
Cheap
Cheaply.
Creep
A slight displacement of an object; the slight movement of something.
Cheap
To buy; to bargain.
Creep
(uncountable) The gradual expansion or proliferation of something beyond its original goals or boundaries, considered negatively.
Christmas creep
Feature creep
Instruction creep
Mission creep
Cheap
Relatively low in price or charging low prices;
It would have been cheap at twice the price
Inexpensive family restaurants
Creep
(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.
Cheap
Tastelessly showy;
A flash car
A flashy ring
Garish colors
A gaudy costume
Loud sport shirts
A meretricious yet stylish book
Tawdry ornaments
Creep
(materials science) An increase in strain with time; the gradual flow or deformation of a material under stress.
Cheap
Of very poor quality
Creep
(geology) The imperceptible downslope movement of surface rock.
Cheap
Embarrassingly stingy
Creep
Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric.
Cheap
Inferior in quality.
The shoes were cheap and fell apart quickly.
Creep
A frightening and/or disconcerting person, especially one who gives the speaker chills.
Stop following me, you creep!
Cheap
Affordable, inexpensive.
They found a cheap place to stay for the weekend.
Creep
(agriculture) A barrier with small openings used to keep large animals out while allowing smaller animals to pass through.
Creep
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.
Ye that walkThe earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep.
Creep
To move slowly, feebly, or timorously, as from unwillingness, fear, or weakness.
The whining schoolboy . . . creeping, like snail,Unwillingly to school.
Like a guilty thing, I creep.
Creep
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.
The sophistry which creeps into most of the books of argument.
Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women.
Creep
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.
Creep
To move or behave with servility or exaggerated humility; to fawn; as, a creeping sycophant.
To come as humbly as they used to creep.
Creep
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.
Creep
To drag in deep water with creepers, as for recovering a submarine cable.
Creep
The act or process of creeping.
Creep
A distressing sensation, or sound, like that occasioned by the creeping of insects.
A creep of undefinable horror.
Out of the stillness, with gathering creep,Like rising wind in leaves.
Creep
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.
Creep
Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric
Creep
A slow longitudinal movement or deformation
Creep
A pen that is fenced so that young animals can enter but adults cannot
Creep
A slow creeping mode of locomotion (on hands and knees or dragging the body);
A crawl was all that the injured man could manage
The traffic moved at a creep
Creep
Move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground;
The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed
Creep
To go stealthily or furtively;
..stead of sneaking around spying on the neighbor's house
Creep
Grow in such a way as to cover (a building, for example);
Ivy grew over the walls of the university buildings
Creep
Show submission or fear
Creep
To grow or spread gradually.
Ivy began to creep up the walls of the old house.
Creep
To behave in a sneaky or secretive manner.
She noticed someone creep around the corner.
Common Curiosities
What does 'creep' mean?
Creep can mean to move slowly and quietly or refer to someone behaving in a disturbing way.
Can 'cheap' have a positive connotation?
Sometimes, as in finding a bargain, but it often implies something of low quality.
Is 'creep' always negative?
Yes, it typically has a negative connotation, whether describing movement or behavior.
What does 'cheap' mean?
Cheap means low in cost or price and often implies poor quality.
How is 'cheap' used in a sentence?
E.g., They bought a cheap car that needed a lot of repairs.
How is 'creep' used in a sentence?
E.g., He tried to creep out of the room without waking anyone.
What is a common use of 'creep' in everyday language?
It is commonly used to describe someone who makes others feel uncomfortable, e.g., "He’s a creep."
Can 'cheap' describe a person?
Yes, it can describe someone who is miserly or unwilling to spend money.
Does 'cheap' always imply poor quality?
Often, but not always. It can simply mean inexpensive without a quality judgment.
What kind of movement does 'creep' describe?
Slow, quiet, and often secretive movement.
Can 'cheap' describe something positive?
Yes, if referring to something affordable or a good deal.
Are there synonyms for 'creep'?
Yes, such as sneak, slink, or lurk.
Can 'creep' refer to plants?
Yes, it can describe the slow growth of plants, like ivy creeping up a wall.
What behavior makes someone a 'creep'?
Unsettling, inappropriate, or overly secretive actions.
Are there synonyms for 'cheap'?
Yes, such as inexpensive, low-cost, or budget.
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Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
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Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
