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grovel

verb
/ˈɡrɒvəl/

Etymology

From Middle English *grovelen, from Old Norse grufla, grœfla (“to grovel”), from Proto-Germanic *grubilōną (“to dig, delve into”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ‑ (“to dig, scrape, scrabble, scratch”); akin to Old Norse á grufu (“on one's belly”) ( > Old Norse grúfa (“to lie face down, grovel”)). Cognate with Scots grovel, gruvil (“to grovel”), German grübeln (“to meditate, ponder”), Norwegian Nynorsk gruvla (“to grovel”). Compare also West Frisian groebeltsje (“to make a mess, skip school, skive”), Dutch grobbelen (“to grope, root, grub”).

  1. derived from *gʰrebʰ‑✻ — “to dig, scrape, scrabble, scratch”
  2. derived from *grubilōną✻ — “to dig, delve into”
  3. derived from grufla
  4. inherited from *grovelen✻

Definitions

  1. To be prone on the ground.

  2. To crawl.

    • In the tube station, the old ones who were on the way out / Would dribble and vomit and grovel and shout

  3. To abase oneself before another person.

    • She refused to grovel in front of the bully, standing her ground.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. To be slavishly nice to someone or apologize in the hope of securing something.

      • He had to grovel before his boss after missing the important meeting.
      • He hated to grovel, but he knew it was the only way to save his job.

    2. To take pleasure in mundane activities.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for grovel. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA