Creephole noun
1. A hole or retreat into which an animal may creep, to escape notice or danger.

2. A subterfuge; an excuse.

Creepie (-ȳ) noun A low stool. [ Scot.]

Creepiness (-ĭ-nĕs) noun An uneasy sensation as of insects creeping on the skin.

She felt a curious, uneasy creepiness .
Mrs. Alexander.

Creeping adjective
1. Crawling, or moving close to the ground. "Every creeping thing." Gen. vi. 20.

2. Growing along, and clinging to, the ground, or to a wall, etc., by means of rootlets or tendrils.

Casements lined with creeping herbs.
Cowper.

Ceeping crowfoot (Botany) , a plant, the Ranunculus repens . -- Creeping snowberry , an American plant ( Chiogenes hispidula ) with white berries and very small round leaves having the flavor of wintergreen.

Creeping Charlie The stonecrop ( Sedum acre ).

Creepingly adverb by creeping slowly; in the manner of a reptile; insidiously; cunningly.

How slily and creepingly did he address himself to our first parents.
South.

Creeple (krē"p'l) noun [ See Cripple .]
1. A creeping creature; a reptile. [ Obsolete]

There is one creeping beast, or long creeple (as the name is in Devonshire), that hath a rattle at his tail that doth discover his age.
Morton (1632).

2. One who is lame; a cripple. [ Obsolete]

Thou knowest how lame a creeple this world is.
Donne.

Creepy (krēp"ȳ) adjective Crawly; having or producing a sensation like that caused by insects creeping on the skin. [ Colloq.]

One's whole blood grew curdling and creepy .
R. Browning.

Crees (krēz) noun plural ; sing. Cree . (Ethnol.) An Algonquin tribe of Indians, inhabiting a large part of British America east of the Rocky Mountains and south of Hudson's Bay.

Creese (krēs) noun [ Malay. kris .] A dagger or short sword used by the Malays, commonly having a serpentine blade. [ Written also crease and kris .]

From a Malayan creese to a sailor's jackknife.
Julian Hawthorne.

Crémaillère noun [ French] (Fort.) An indented or zigzaged line of intrenchment.

Cremaster noun [ New Latin , from Greek ........., from ............ to hang.]
1. (Anat.) A thin muscle which serves to draw up the testicle.

2. (Zoology) The apex of the last abdominal segment of an insect.

Cremasteric adjective (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the cremaster; as, the cremasteric artery.

Cremate transitive verb [ Latin crematus , past participle of cremare to burn; confer Sanskrit cr... to cook.] To burn; to reduce to ashes by the action of fire, either directly or in an oven or retort; to incremate or incinerate; as, to cremate a corpse, instead of burying it.

Cremation noun [ Latin crematio .] A burning; esp., the act or practice of cremating the dead.

Without cremation . . . of their bodies.
Sir T. Browne.

Cremationist noun One who advocates the practice of cremation.

Cremator noun [ Latin ] One who, or that which, cremates or consumes to ashes.

Crematorium noun ; plural Crematoriums (-ŭmz), Crematories (-r...z). [ New Latin crematorium , from Latin cremator .] A furnace for cremating corpses; a building containing such a furnace.

Crematory adjective Pertaining to, or employed in, cremation.

Crême noun [ French] Cream; - - a term used esp. in cookery, names of liqueurs, etc.

Cremocarp (krĕm"o*kärp or krē"mo-) noun [ Greek kremanny`nai to hang + karpo`s fruit.] (Botany) The peculiar fruit of fennel, carrot, parsnip, and the like, consisting of a pair of carpels pendent from a supporting axis.

Cremona (kre*mō"n˙) noun A superior kind of violin, formerly made at Cremona , in Italy.

Cremor noun [ Latin CF. Cream .] Cream; a substance resembling cream; yeast; scum.

Cremosin noun See Crimson . [ Obsolete]

Crems (krĕmz) noun See Krems .

Crenate (krē"nat), Cre"na*ted (krē"na*tĕd) adjective [ Latin crena notch. See Cranny .] (Botany) Having the margin cut into rounded teeth notches, or scallops.

Crenation noun
1. (Botany) A rounded tooth on the edge of a leaf.

2. The condition of being crenate.

Crenature noun
1. (Botany) A rounded tooth or notch of a crenate leaf, or any part that is crenate; -- called also crenelle .

2. The state of being crenated or notched.

Crenel noun See Crenelle .

Crenelate transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Crenelated (- ?`t?d); present participle & verbal noun Crenelating (- ?`t?ng).] [ Late Latin crenellare , kernellare : confer French cr...neler to indent. See Crenelle .] [ Written also crenellate .]
1. To furnish with crenelles.

2. To indent; to notch; as, a crenelated leaf.

Crenelated molding (Architecture) , a kind of indented molding used in Norman buildings.

Crenelation noun The act of crenelating, or the state of being crenelated; an indentation or an embrasure. [ Written also crenellation .]

Crenelle, Crenel noun [ Old French crenel , F. cr...neau , Late Latin crenellus , kernellus , dim. (prob.) from Latin crena notch. See Crenny .]
1. An embrasure or indentation in a battlement; a loophole in a fortress; an indentation; a notch. See Merlon , and Illust. of Battlement .

2. (Botany) Same as Crenature .

Crenelled (kr...-n...ld") adjective (Botany) Same as Crenate .

Crengle noun See Cringle .

Crenulate adjective [ Dim. of crenate .] (Botany) Minutely crenate.

Crenulation noun
1. A minute crenation.

2. The state of being minutely scalloped.

Creole noun [ French cr...ole , Spanish criollo , from an American negro word, perhaps a corruption of a Spanish criadillo , dim. of criado servant, formerly also, child, from Latin creatus , past participle of creare to create. Confer Create .] One born of European parents in the American colonies of France or Spain or in the States which were once such colonies, esp. a person of French or Spanish descent, who is a native inhabitant of Louisiana, or one of the States adjoining, bordering on the Gulf of of Mexico.

» "The term creole negro is employed in the English West Indies to distinguish the negroes born there from the Africans imported during the time of the slave trade. The application of this term to the colored people has led to an idea common in some parts of the United States, though wholly unfounded, that it implies an admixture greater or less of African blood." R. Hildreth.

» "The title [ Creole] did not first belong to the descendants of Spanish, but of French, settlers, But such a meaning implied a certain excellence of origin, and so came early to include any native of French or Spanish descent by either parent, whose nonalliance with the slave race entitled him to social rank. Later, the term was adopted by, not conceded to, the natives of mixed blood, and is still so used among themselves. . . . Besides French and Spanish, there are even, for convenience of speech, 'colored' Creoles ; but there are no Italian, or Sicilian, nor any English, Scotch, Irish, or 'Yankee' Creoles , unless of parentage married into, and themselves thoroughly proselyted in, Creole society." G. W. Cable.

Creole adjective Of or pertaining to a Creole or the Creoles.

» In New Orleans the word Creole is applied to any product, or variety of manufacture, peculiar to Louisiana; as, Creole ponies, chickens, cows, shoes, eggs, wagons, baskets, etc.

Creole State Louisiana; -- a nickname. See Creole , noun & adjective

Creolean (kr?-?"l?-a]/> n), Cre*o"li*an adjective Pertaining to, or characteristic of, the Creoles. -- noun A Creole.

Creosol noun [ Cresote + phen ol .] (Chemistry) A colorless liquid resembling phenol or carbolic acid, homologous with pyrocatechin, and obtained from beechwood tar and gum guaiacum. [ Written also creasol .]

Creosote noun [ Greek ........., gen. ........., flesh + ......... to preserve.] (Chemistry) Wood-tar oil; an oily antiseptic liquid, of a burning smoky taste, colorless when pure, but usually colored yellow or brown by impurity or exposure. It is a complex mixture of various phenols and their ethers, and is obtained by the distillation of wood tar, especially that of beechwood.

» It is remarkable as an antiseptic and deodorizer in the preservation of wood, flesh, etc., and in the prevention of putrefaction; but it is a poor germicide, and in this respect has been overrated. Smoked meat, as ham, owes its preservation and taste to a small quantity of creosote absorbed from the smoke to which it is exposed. Carbolic acid is phenol proper, while creosote is a mixture of several phenols.

Coal-tar creosote (Chemistry) , a colorless or yellow, oily liquid, obtained in the distillation of coal tar, and resembling wood-tar oil, or creosote proper, in composition and properties.

Creosote transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Creosoted (-s?"t?d); present participle & verbal noun Creosoting .] To saturate or impregnate with creosote, as timber, for the prevention of decay.

Creosote bush A shrub ( Covillea mexicana ) found in desert regions from Colorado to California and southward through Mexico. It has yellow flowers and very resinous foliage with a strong odor of creosote.

Crepance noun [ Confer Latin crepare to crack.] (Far.) An injury in a horse's leg, caused by the shoe of one hind foot striking and cutting the other leg. It sometimes forms an ulcer.

Crêpe noun Same as Crape .

Crêpe (krâp; Eng. krāp) noun [ French] Any of various crapelike fabrics, whether crinkled or not.

Crêpe de Chine [ French de Chine of China], Canton crape or an inferior gauzy fabric resembling it. -- C. lisse (lēs) [ French lisse smooth], smooth, or unwrinkled, crape.

Crepitant adjective [ See Crepitate .] Having a crackling sound; crackling; rattling.

Crepitant rale (Medicine) , a peculiar crackling sound audible with inspiration in pneumonia and other lung disease.

Crepitate (kr...p"...-t...t) intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Crepitated (- t...`t...d); present participle & verbal noun Crepitating (-t...`t...ng).] [ Latin crepitatus , past participle of crepitare to crackle, v. intensive of crepare to crack. Confer Crevice .] To make a series of small, sharp, rapidly repeated explosions or sounds, as salt in fire; to crackle; to snap.

Crepitation noun [ Confer French crépitation .]
1. The act of crepitating or crackling.

2. (Medicine) (a) A grating or crackling sensation or sound, as that produced by rubbing two fragments of a broken bone together, or by pressing upon cellular tissue containing air. (b) A crepitant râle.