groveled

variants or grovelled
past tense of grovel
1
as in recoiled
to draw back or crouch down in fearful submission the way in which the abused dog would grovel whenever its owner came near

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2
as in crawled
to move slowly with the body close to the ground because of their anatomy, bats can only grovel while moving along the ground

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for groveled
Verb
  • Blazy, a Parisian born and bred, recoiled from the claim.
    Nathan Heller, Vogue, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Some recoiled at the launch and others quit their positions.
    Nick Penzenstadler, USA Today, 25 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • On a warm day in September, Schlink’s son crawled on the squishy, rubber surface of the large playground near their house.
    Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman, 15 Oct. 2025
  • This time, of the five live roaches, the least shy sashayed across the floor in front of the cookline and crawled under a dining area table.
    David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 11 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • But none of the band members ever flinched over the divide that formed over their pre- and post-Vheissu sound.
    Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2025
  • These images of an expanding Kong appeared on the screen and the actors on stage in front of it flinched in horror as the dwarfing image of Kong’s bigness loomed menacingly behind them.
    Christopher Smith, Oc Register, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • QuikTrip dropped 1% to 80 points while Buc-ee’s slid 1%, tying Love’s in fifth place with 79 points.
    Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Penn State abruptly fired James Franklin on Sunday after the Nittany Lions slid from a 3-0 start into a three-game losing streak that included an unexpected 22–21 home loss to Northwestern, leaving the program 3-3 and winless in Big Ten play.
    Rowan Fisher-Shotton, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Anyone living in one of the dozens of surrounding villages, such as Nazareth, who was not rounded up must have cowered in fear behind closed doors or hidden in the various underground cisterns and hewn chambers beneath the ancient houses and courtyards of the Jewish villages.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2025
  • In one incident, a predator, confirmed by a state biologist to have been a wolf, attacked an elk on the front steps of a home in Sierra County as the college-age son of the owner cowered inside, alone and afraid amid the growls and thumps that were shaking the front door.
    Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • In August, Kravitz told Meyers that her mom's pet snake, Orpheus, had gotten loose and slithered into a small hole in the corner of the bathroom.
    Bryan West, USA Today, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Walton Goggins slithered into the 2025 Emmys with some apt nods to The White Lotus.
    Jessica Wang, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • During a hospital stay, Roy’s enfeebled mother fixates on the caste and religious affiliations of the doctors treating her—the sort of thing that will be familiar to anyone who has cringed at a diminished elder’s unfiltered prejudices.
    Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • In a video shared by media agency Nashville Experience on Instagram, Urban crouched down to ask a fan her name while interacting with the crowd, but was caught off guard by her response.
    Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 18 Oct. 2025
  • Allsup, crouched in a small crate, looked quietly apprehensive.
    Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Groveled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groveled. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.

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