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
  • Arisu crawls onto a mound of rubble for momentary relief, and is met with an angry Banda.
    Kayti Burt, Time, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Gameplay begins as the player crawls from the wreckage.
    G Kirilloff, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Bingo momentarily flinches, and Atlas rolls onto his back in response.
    Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Months later, Anderson, 50, still avoids crowds, doesn’t go out after dark and flinches when the doorbell rings.
    USA Today, USA Today, 7 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The Japanese influence creeps in again with a matcha white chocolate chip cookie.
    Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Employees notice the waves of shiny experiments that come and go (with no momentum), and cynicism creeps in.
    Aditya Vikram Kashyap, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • The Guthrie family cowers in obedient fear of its brooding patriarch (Peter Mullan).
    Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 5 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The district snakes through southeast Texas from the border near Hidalgo − through Pulido's native Edinburg − and northward up around Corpus Christi, where the Tejano singer Selena has her roots.
    Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2025
  • The Wild Flint The Flint snakes down Georgia, a safe distance from I-85 and I-75, before joining the Chattahoochee River in Lake Seminole and cutting across the Florida Panhandle as the Apalachicola River.
    David Hanson, Southern Living, 13 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Her voice, still more often than not, slides with ease into the cracks and crevices that kick drums and deep grooves open in neotraditional-style country compositions.
    Marcus K. Dowling, Nashville Tennessean, 27 Sep. 2025
  • When the part slides into place, the user feels a haptic buzz.
    Jackie Charniga, Freep.com, 24 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

“Grovels.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grovels. Accessed 4 Oct. 2025.

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