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
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
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
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In it, her fellow students can be seen gasping, covering their faces and cringing.—
Catherine Santino,
PEOPLE,
30 Nov. 2025
-
Encouraged to see Jones sorta respond, Mackie kept babbling on and on and on about his dad, unaware that everyone else in the room was cringing.—
Lisa Gutierrez,
Kansas City Star,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Galahadosuchus represents one of the early ancestors of that lineage, and the evolutionary path from upright sprinter to belly-crawling ambush predator is a long one.—
Ryan Brennan,
Kansas City Star,
23 Feb. 2026
-
But Baba’s streets were crawling with ICE proxies during his entire childhood.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Media analysts said Hegseth was trying to replace independent observers with obsequious pro-Trump voices.—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
4 Mar. 2026
-
Most are evasive, a few are obsequious, many are defiant, a few are enraged, and all appear to feel their lives slipping away under the seemingly boundless force of judicial inquisition.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
19 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Many critics are now calling out CBS for flinching rather than forcefully standing up to politically motivated intimidation.—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
18 Feb. 2026
-
And Bobby’s just not flinching.—
Alison Weinflash,
Rolling Stone,
18 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
That later Presidents did indeed engage in military action without consulting Congress, creeping on to a power reserved for the legislature, is a fact of the past century and a half of American history but especially since the rise of the national-security state during the Cold War.—
Jill Lepore,
New Yorker,
3 Mar. 2026
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In full sun or partial shade and well-draining soil, creeping thyme puts on a show, with small flowers covering the ground like a colorful carpet.—
Jamie McIntosh,
The Spruce,
3 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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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
-
After all, the deal — for a long-forsaken project, an action-comedy franchise starring two aging stars — underscores the servile fealty of new Paramount owners Larry and David Ellison amid their recent maneuvering to take control of TikTok and Warner Bros. Discovery (the latter seemingly futile).—
Gary Baum,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
Hydroplaning is the term for when a vehicle begins sliding uncontrollably on wet roads.—
STAR-TELEGRAM WEATHER BOT,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
5 Mar. 2026
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That’s right, y’all, with the touch of the sliding button, scooping batter for muffins, cupcakes, brownies, and other baked treats is as easy as pie.—
Alicia Geigel,
Southern Living,
5 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
In a lengthy and apologetic statement, Altman claimed that OpenAI was now altering the terms of its Pentagon deal to explicitly prohibit the use of its AI systems to surveil US citizens, exhibiting a degree of people-pleasing normally witnessed in its sycophantic chatbots.—
Frank Landymore,
Futurism,
5 Mar. 2026
-
Or the ways in which both adult-content sites such as OnlyFans and chatbot platforms habituate users (primarily men) to intimate relationships that are entirely sycophantic and affirming.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
20 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Groveling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groveling. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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