crept up

verb

past tense of creep up
as in sneaked up

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for crept up
  1. turned up
  2. arrived
  3. reached
  4. hit
  5. came
  6. showed up
  7. attained
Verb
  • The incident became even more troubling after reports that models had turned up on a dozen other websites.
    — Alyson Shontell, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026
  • Mock skeletons are everywhere in the weeks leading up to Halloween, but a real one turned up as someone was mowing grass in eastern North Carolina, police say.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 4 Oct. 2026
Definition of turned up
Verb
  • His bond with Nathan was premised on its insularity, then Gael arrived like Yoko and threw everything out of whack.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2026
  • When police arrived, the garage door, a side door and the center console of Flynn's pickup truck were all open.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of arrived
Verb
  • The film itself reworks a story that first reached Japanese cinemas in 1983.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of reached
Verb
  • Heather is absolutely tickled and lets out a cackle, because that little bit surely hits even harder if the FBI has actually busted up one of your cast trips before.
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
  • In other white-collar fields, like legal services or copywriting, AI is hitting labor markets that were roughly in balance.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of hit
Verb
  • That came just a few days after news broke that Palantir had secured a $10 billion contract from the US Army over the next decade.
    — Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 7 Aug. 2025
  • All five of Bednar’s outs came via strikeout on Wednesday.
    — Brendan Kuty, New York Times, 7 Aug. 2025
Definition of came
Verb
  • People knew him as the guy who vehemently opposed NAFTA, who showed up on picket lines, who only wore suits made in Ohio.
    — Andrea Hsu, NPR, 2 Oct. 2026
  • According to Ayer, that exhaustion showed up in the movie, as Pitt couldn’t relax or rely on the typical comforts of a film set.
    — Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of showed up
Verb
  • That show, launched in 2020, attained a cult following — it was named Best Podcasts of the Year by outlets like Vogue, Esquire and Cosmopolitan.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Rabies in humans is completely preventable but medical help must be attained right away, according to the CDC.
    — Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of attained
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

crept
crept up
crepuscular
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Cite this Entry

“Crept up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/crept%20up. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

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