Idioms

make one's flesh creep

make (one's) flesh creep

To cause one to feel disgusted, frightened, or unnerved. Having to look at all those surgical photos made my flesh creep. The mere mention of cockroaches makes her flesh creep.

See also: creep, flesh, make

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

make one's flesh creep

Also, make one's skin crawl. Cause one to shudder with disgust or fear, as in That picture makes my flesh creep, or Cockroaches make my skin crawl. This idiom alludes to the feeling of having something crawl over one's body or skin. The first term appeared in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1727): "Something in their countenance made my flesh creep with a horror I cannot express." The variant dates from the late 1800s.

See also: creep, flesh, make

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in classic literature

I had slidden down the balusters when I was a boy, and thought nothing of it, but to slide down the balusters in a railway-train is a thing to make one's flesh creep. Sometimes we had as much as ten yards of almost level ground, and this gave us a few full breaths in comfort; but straightway we would turn a corner and see a long steep line of rails stretching down below us, and the comfort was at an end.

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