variants
or grovelling
as in fawning
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Dissimilar Words
variants
or grovelling
1
2
as in crawling
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
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Recent Examples of groveling
Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 18 Jan. 2026
That’s the saddest cash-grab gimmick ever, groveling for Dubai dollars.
—Sports Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Jan. 2026
Rather than wait it out until January 2029, when magical thinking assumes the current transatlantic nightmare will come to an end, the EU needs to stop groveling and build greater sovereignty.
—Matthias Matthijs, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2025
Continue reading … POINTING FINGERS – Former vice president accuses newspaper owners of 'groveling' to Trump in new book.
—FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2025
Verb
Political courage is needed, especially from the cowardly, groveling Congress.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 18 Jan. 2026
That’s the saddest cash-grab gimmick ever, groveling for Dubai dollars.
—Sports Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Jan. 2026
Rather than wait it out until January 2029, when magical thinking assumes the current transatlantic nightmare will come to an end, the EU needs to stop groveling and build greater sovereignty.
—Matthias Matthijs, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2025
Continue reading … POINTING FINGERS – Former vice president accuses newspaper owners of 'groveling' to Trump in new book.
—FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for groveling
Verb
-
The movie’s real sympathetic figure is Hall, played by Dacre Montgomery, who spends most of the movie cringing and flinching, while trying not to move.—
Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle,
5 Jan. 2026
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In it, her fellow students can be seen gasping, covering their faces and cringing.—
Catherine Santino,
PEOPLE,
30 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Maritime trade is crawling at Georgia’s ports, but the state authority that operates the nation’s third-busiest cargo terminals isn’t throttling back its expansion efforts.—
Adam Van Brimmer,
AJC.com,
24 Mar. 2026
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An unusually strong high pressure system in the middle to upper levels of the atmosphere has been crawling across the southwestern United States in the past day or so, forecasters said.—
Roberto Villalpando,
Austin American Statesman,
21 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Specific versions of ChatGPT have been singled out as being especially obsequious, and extreme cases have led to breaks with reality and explosions of violence.—
Frank Landymore,
Futurism,
11 Mar. 2026
-
In fact, the obsequious Barack Obama and the hapless Joe Biden helped Iran by sending in plane loads of cash to the murdering mullahs in exchange for nothing.—
Peter Lucas,
Boston Herald,
7 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
The Alpha Wave acquisition suggests the Gulf’s biggest dealmakers aren’t flinching at opportunities in the US or being slowed by the war in Iran.—
Kelsey Warner,
semafor.com,
10 Mar. 2026
-
Freeny absorbed the impact like Marvin Hagler, hardly flinching and brushing it off.—
Haley Sawyer,
Oc Register,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Then those lights flick off abruptly, dropping us into the dark like an elevator glitching down a floor, instead of delivering a creeping descent to hell.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
19 Mar. 2026
-
Because the weeds will start creeping through the cracks in no time, grab the Grampa’s Weeder that gardeners in their 50s, 60s, and 70s use without bending down.—
Stephanie Osmanski,
Better Homes & Gardens,
16 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
That this man’s-man tough guy becomes utterly servile in the presence of a bunch of slack-casual bazillionaires is the cherry on top of the fascist sundae.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
13 Mar. 2026
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Julia was the first weekly TV series that starred a Black woman in a role that wasn't servile.—
Starr Rocque,
PEOPLE,
3 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
While road salt is a key element to preventing cars from slipping and sliding over roads in winter, the mineral can damage cars over time.—
Jenna Prestininzi,
USA Today,
25 Mar. 2026
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The company’s debt load far exceeded its market capitalization, and its credit rating was sliding toward junk.—
Nir Eyal,
Harvard Business Review,
25 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Participants in the new study, which was published today in Science, preferred the sycophantic AI models to other models that gave it to them straight, even when the flatterers gave participants bad advice.—
Allison Parshall,
Scientific American,
26 Mar. 2026
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Hammed Animashaun was on standby as a sycophantic deputy PM, David Lammy.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
22 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Groveling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groveling. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.
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