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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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
  • Videos recorded by witnesses at the Utah Valley University event showed Kirk being shot in the neck and bleeding heavily as his body recoiled.
    Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Sep. 2025
  • As detailed in Tina Fey’s 2011 memoir, Bossypants, Jimmy Fallon, who was also in the show’s cast at the time, jokingly recoiled and told Poehler to stop it.
    Anna Holmes, The Atlantic, 21 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • One roach crawled on the floor by the prep table.
    David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Insects crawled through clinical areas, and staff food was stored alongside medical supplies.
    Walter Pavlo, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • The last time Congress faced a deadline to extend government funding, Senate Democrats flinched, giving Republicans the votes needed to avert a government shutdown without extracting any concessions.
    Nik Popli, Time, 4 Sep. 2025
  • However, Machado flinched as the ball approached and then zipped past his glove.
    Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • Putts that had been falling slid past the cup.
    Zach Sweet, Kansas City Star, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Tagovailoa slid to his right to buy time and was targeting slot receiver Malik Washington on the third-and-3 pass Latu jumped in front of.
    Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • But we’re not so easily cowered.
    The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 15 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • Their layers of meaning multiplied and slithered out of my grasp.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 25 Aug. 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
  • The crowd crouched – then sprinted away from the canopy.
    Rick Jervis, USA Today, 14 Sep. 2025
  • And over the past nine months, a team of judges has been measuring it, pinpointing the exact location of the wave’s base, then stacking images of Slebir’s crouched pose on top of each other like a totem pole up the face of the wave.
    Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News, 13 Sep. 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 16 Sep. 2025.

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