grovels

present tense third-person singular of grovel
1
as in cringes
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 crawls
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 grovels
Verb
  • Payton cringes at the mention of a sophomore slump, that defenses will figure out Nix.
    Troy Renck, Denver Post, 6 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • Seltz’s system crawls hundreds of millions of pages a day, and returns results in under 200 milliseconds.
    Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 24 June 2026
  • At sunset, the city starts glowing around you while traffic crawls silently below.
    Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 28 May 2026
Verb
  • Advertisement Throughout the narrative, Johnson never flinches in his portrayal of the wreck, unleashing footage of investigators approaching the car and the victims’ families.
    Jake King-Schreifels, Time, 15 May 2026
  • DiVincenzo never flinches at adversity.
    Marcus Thompson II, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026
Verb
  • Misalignment creeps in simply because a high volume of choices are handed off to local leaders operating under distinct market pressures.
    Peter Ross, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
  • As our conversation extends into the hour mark, her hood creeps upward along the side of her face most visible to those around us.
    José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 23 June 2026
Verb
  • Anaia, feeling jilted that the letter was addressed only to Racine, cowers in hurt, like a street cat.
    Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
  • As his party watches silently and cowers, his intentions grow only more naked.
    Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 19 May 2026
Verb
  • When a Knicks game lets out at the Garden or concertgoers from the Meadowlands pour out of Penn Station, crowds pack the Tick Tock’s orange-and-green banquettes and the line snakes out the door.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
  • The River Caqueta snakes nearly 1,800 miles into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
    Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 27 May 2026
Verb
  • Switchable defender who slides laterally very well for his size.
    WBZ-News Staff, CBS News, 24 June 2026
  • The Levoit Cordless Stick Vacuum has a 180-degree swivel head that slides right under chairs, tables, and beds.
    Sian Babish, PEOPLE, 22 June 2026
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

“Grovels.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grovels. Accessed 30 Jun. 2026.

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