make one's flesh creep

Idioms and Phrases

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.