Abstract: The creep sliding instability of rocks is one of the main reasons for inducing fault-slip rockburst. For revealing the mechanical response characteristics of the creep sliding instability process of rocks,the creep growth mode and failure evolution characteristics of rocks shear-slip instability process was analyzed clearly by theoretical analysis and experimental verification. Subsequently,a time-dependent damage creep model was established for the shear-slip failure of rocks and verified by the previous test. The results demonstrated that the time-dependent damage creep model can be used to describe the creep evolution characteristics of rocks shear slip instability under compression, and it can also better characterize the mechanical responses of different creep stages for rocks failure. The shear creep failure process of rocks had obvious stage characteristics, and there existed deceleration creep modes,constant velocity creep modes and accelerated creep modes. The creep growth rate of rocks was affected by its elastic modulus and viscosity coefficient,and it was also affected by its time-dependent damage effect,especially at the accelerated creep stage,which was also one of the main inducements for rocks nonlinear acceleration instability.