The idea is to creep up on a budget deal by a series of small steps.

ECONOMIST: Budgetary follies

So the Ethiopian changed his skin to a blackish brown, which allowed him to creep up on them.

NEWYORKER: It Ain��t Necessarily So

"When you start to see the age creep up on a show like that, you wonder whether the show is sustainable, " says Laura Caraccioli-Davis, head of entertainment at Starcom, a media planning agency.

FORBES: Magazine Article

They could sit back and watch their 80 percent budget spend continue to creep up just to keep the lights on and keep existing systems functional.

FORBES: Danger: The Worrisome Increase In IT System Complexity

Tammy, who had handled the household finances since the day they were married, let the balances on the credit cards creep up, always intending to pay everything off with the coming bonus.

NPR: Weak Housing Market May Not Be Signal to Buy

Investors went from planning Dow 1, 000 celebrations to worrying that inflation was about to creep up and that the Vietnam War would drag on.

NPR: So The Dow Hit A Record; Now Where Do We Go?

The cost of borrowing began to creep up again, a big bank that had bet on cheaper money failed, foreign capital took flight and Turkey found itself in a vicious circle of wobbling banks and spiralling interest rates.

ECONOMIST: TURKEY'S FUTURE

He would watch the daylight wax and wane on the ceiling, or roaches creep slowly up the wall.

NEWYORKER: Hellhole

Dr Richard Aspinall, a consultant hepatologist at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, said the amount people drank on their own at home could slowly creep up.

BBC: Minimum alcohol price 'would save 11,500 pensioners'

That means don't pick up the walking wounded, which sister Windsor fund buys for 50 cents on the dollar, or let his multiple creep up.

FORBES: Keep the Faith