the creeps.

A feeling of uneasy fear or repulsion prompted by something perceived as disturbing.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• give someone the creeps
• get the creeps
• a place that gives you the creeps

On the page

That cheerful voice coming from the empty room gave me the creeps.

She got the creeps whenever the portrait’s glass reflected her face.

The recording gave him the creeps, though he could not say why.

Usage notes

Primary category: fear. Informal; overlaps fear and disgust rather than naming either precisely. Normally used with give or get. Fixed idiom; inflect the surrounding verb, not the core expression.