variants
or grovelling
as in fawning
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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
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
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
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The country is crawling with hot springs and spa retreats, like the famed Blue Lagoon and Sky Lagoon.—
Stacey Leasca,
Travel + Leisure,
14 Jan. 2026
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My favorite space is the private balcony, crawling with green Spanish tile and bestowed with a bistro table and ashtray.—
Charlie Hobbs,
Condé Nast Traveler,
12 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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This approach is best exemplified by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who in June sent Trump an obsequious message praising his Middle Eastern diplomacy and lauding him for getting European countries to spend more on defense.—
Philip H. Gordon,
Foreign Affairs,
16 Dec. 2025
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The darkest thread, meanwhile, is the obsequious reverence for Epstein.—
Jessica Winter,
New Yorker,
17 Nov. 2025
Verb
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In this Tudor renovation, designer Barrie Benson combined 10 different textiles and prints in a single, orderly viewpoint without flinching.—
Zoe Gowen,
Southern Living,
29 Dec. 2025
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Human reflexes naturally protect the eyes; blinking, tearing, and flinching are some of the fastest human reflexes.—
Matthew Kayser,
USA Today,
8 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
Grow as a creeping vine or along a trellis.—
Miranda Crowell,
Better Homes & Gardens,
8 Jan. 2026
-
What’s that warmth creeping over you?—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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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
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Earlier this year, my colleague and bud Kelefa Sanneh suggested that music critics, as a lot, have gone soft—becoming submissive, overly agreeable, and, in some cases, nearly servile.—
Amanda Petrusich,
New Yorker,
1 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Joseph took over a team that had gone 9-7, but was sliding toward disaster.—
Patrick Saunders,
Denver Post,
15 Jan. 2026
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Position the whetstone horizontally, coarse-side up, on a damp towel to prevent sliding.—
Randi Gollin,
Martha Stewart,
15 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Researchers and even users can alter these personas through technical tweaks, as many ChatGPT users found out earlier this year when the OpenAI service fluctuated between personalities that were either gushing and sycophantic or emotionally distant.—
Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
3 Jan. 2026
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In our first exchanges, my noncommittal 10-word texts prompted hundreds of words in response, much of them sycophantic.—
Amogh Dimri,
The Atlantic,
2 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Groveling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/groveling. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
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