What is "groping"

Grope \Grope\ (gr[=o]p), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Groped (gr[=o]pt); p. pr. & vb. n. Groping.] [OE. gropen, gropien, grapien, AS. gr[=a]pian to touch, grope, fr. gr[imac]pan to gripe. See Gripe.]

1. To feel with or use the hands; to handle. [Obs.]

2. To search or attempt to find something in the dark, or, as a blind person, by feeling; to move about hesitatingly, as in darkness or obscurity; to feel one's way, as with the hands, when one can not see.

   We grope for the wall like the blind.
   --Is. lix. 10.

   To grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities ot a worldly life.
   --Buckminster.

n. An act of groping; a grope. vb. (present participle of grope English)

adj. acting with uncertainty or hesitance or lack of confidence; "a groping effort to understand" [syn: hesitant]

When used in a sexual context, groping is touching or fondling another person in an unwelcome sexual way using the hands. The term generally has a negative connotation in many societies, and may be considered sexual assault, and terms such as frotteurism (or toucherism) may describe the practice of a person rubbing up against another person, typically using their sexual parts. Touching a consenting person's body during sexual activity, massage, or medical examination is not usually considered groping, though the term is sometimes used to include clumsy, selfish, or inappropriate sexual touching. Areas of the body most frequently groped include the buttocks, breasts, vulva and thighs on a woman, and the penis, testicles and buttocks on a man. Gropers might use their hands, but pressing any part of their body against another person can be considered groping.

The incidence of groping varies around the world, and some countries have acquired a reputation for it. In some countries, it is common for a woman's buttocks to be pinched or slapped in a crowded area. In many countries, unwelcome groping or touching of any part of another person's body is illegal, but in almost all countries it is considered unacceptable behaviour. Italy used to have a reputation for men pinching women's bottoms, and the term groping could perhaps be applied, but it was not a common term at that time (mid-20th century, for example). Japan has a reputation for females being groped on trains and buses to the extent that the authorities have implemented anti-groping campaigns, which has received considerable media attention and been the subject of serious study in recent years. In parts of South Asia, including India, Nepal and Bangladesh, public sexual harassment or molestation (often known as " street harassment") of women by men is widely referred to as Eve teasing.