give someone the creeps

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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.

   • 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.

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