give the creeps

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

give someone the creeps (third-person singular simple present gives someone the creeps, present participle giving someone the creeps, simple past gave someone the creeps, past participle given someone the creeps)

1. (idiomatic) To give someone a feeling of uneasiness or mild fright.

   Walking through the graveyard late at night really gives me the creeps.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “‘Give Me a Black Goat!’”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 216:

     As for Leo, he did not altogether like it either, but ran his fingers through his yellow curls, and remarked that it gave him the creeps.

   • 1997, Roddy Doyle, The Woman Who Walked into Doors:

     It’s the emptiness; there’s no one on the street at that time, along the river. It gives me the creeps.

Synonyms

• creep someone out, give someone the heebie-jeebies, give someone the willies, spook someone, unnerve someone, give someone the collywobbles

Translations

give someone a feeling of uneasiness or mild fright

Chinese: Mandarin: 讓……毛骨悚然 / 让……毛骨悚然 (ràng... máogǔsǒngrán) Finnish: värisyttää (fi), aiheuttaa väristyksiä French: donner des frissons, donner froid dans le dos (fr), donner des sueurs froides Galician: dar grima, arrepiar (gl) Hungarian: borsódzik tőle a háta Norwegian: gi noen gåsehud Portuguese: dar arrepios Russian: мурашки по коже (muraški po kože) Spanish: dar ñáñaras (Mexico), dar repelús, dar yuyu, dar canguelo