grovels

verb

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
  1. cringes
  2. crawls
  3. flinches
  4. creeps
  5. cowers
  6. snakes
  7. slides
Verb
  • Payton cringes at the mention of a sophomore slump, that defenses will figure out Nix.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 6 Aug. 2025
Definition of cringes
Verb
  • Markets do not hold still for a year and a half while your deal crawls through due diligence.
    — Lien De Pau, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026
  • Footage of the moment shows Menitoff acting as if nothing is happening as the bug crawls on her.
    — Raechal Shewfelt, Entertainment Weekly, 16 July 2026
Definition of crawls
Verb
  • Warner flinches not about a birthday that is often associated with the beginning of decline.
    — Dan Pompei, New York Times, 21 July 2026
  • 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
Definition of flinches
Verb
  • Complexity slowly creeps in, via the boardroom, presentations, decisions, relationships and finally, the ability to serve the consumer and the very reason why the company exists in the first place.
    — Sonal Jain, Forbes.com, 22 July 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
Definition of creeps
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
Definition of cowers
Verb
  • The new district snakes up through Kansas City’s urban core, in an attempt to create a district more favorable for Republicans in the 5th District.
    — Jack Harvel July 28, Kansas City Star, 28 July 2026
  • The story of McCarthy’s life was written on this winding street that snakes through a small, working-class corner of Pittsburgh where the Monongahela River bends.
    — Mike DeFabo, New York Times, 27 July 2026
Definition of snakes
Verb
  • To make room for this to happen, the dining table folds against the wall and the rear bench folds and slides forward just behind the driver's seat.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 21 July 2026
  • Bucharest sits close to the Vrancea seismic zone, where the Eurasian tectonic plate slides beneath another in a way that can produce powerful earthquakes that are felt as far as Istanbul, Kyiv or even Moscow.
    — Andrei Popoviciu, The Dial, 21 July 2026
Definition of slides
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.

Browse Nearby Words

groveling
grovels
groves
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Cite this Entry

“Grovels.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grovels. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of grovels for Spanish Speakers

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