Find the word definition

The Collaborative International Dictionary
groveling

groveling \grov"el*ing\, grovelling \grov"el*ling\, a. Lying prone; low; debased; submissive in a self-abasing manner. ``A groveling creature.''
--Cowper.

Syn: cringing, wormlike, wormy.

Wiktionary
groveling

alt. (context US English) (present participle of grovel English) n. The act of one who grovels. vb. (context US English) (present participle of grovel English)

WordNet
groveling

adj. totally submissive [syn: cringing, grovelling, wormlike, wormy]

Usage examples of "groveling".

To show any emotion in the presence of the Atabeg was unwise, although groveling was acceptable after a certain point in the interview.

Their groveling allegiance to developers is best manifested along a two-mile segment of University Drive in Plantation, where there are now no less than five malls and shopping centers.

When Tarl saw what he had not seen before, he began to pummel the groveling gnoll with his fists.

Groveling in a spreading pool of his urine, he clasped his beringed hands and raised them beseechingly.

No one can imagine how fatal it was to boys whose vitality was sapped by long months in Andersonville, by coarse, meager, changeless food, by groveling on the bare earth, and by hopelessness as to any improvement of condition.

At first Babygirl was too astonished to comprehend, then she burst into tears of indignation and hurt, then she pleaded with the brute to be spared, then she flew into a tantrum tossing silky garments and such into a suitcase, then she was lying in a puddle on the bathroom floor, nights and days passed in a delirium, her keeper fed her grudgingly and at irregular intervals, there were promises of sunshine, greenery, Christmas gifts, promises made and withheld, then one day a masked figure appeared in the doorway, in leather military regalia, gloved hands on his hips, brass-studded belt, holster and pistol riding his hip, gleaming black leather boots the toes of which Babygirl eagerly kissed, groveling before him, twining her long curly-cinnamon hair around his ankles.

Hawks, sir"-the phone computer's voice was that of a groveling bhisti's singsong"a certain Mr.

Learning doesn't require credentialing, ranking, grading, high-stakes testing, groveling for letters of recommendation and so on.

That made her smile again, the picture of the high-and-mighty earl of Ashburn groveling in the dirt, his arrogant gray eyes clouded with terror.

Our Letters ought also to bear something that is not mean and groveling, and confin'd to private Affairs.

There were no more incidents like the intermezzo of groveling which had shaken Paul to his very foundations just a couple of months before.

I had marked neither modesty, nor benevolence, nor candor, nor refinement in her mind or manners—and, I married her—gross, groveling, mole-eyed blockhead that I was!

When, however, we come to the groveling Middle Ages with their superstitions and ecstasies and monasticisms and maunderings over saints and their relics, we find the cool and impersonal loveliness of the felidae in very low esteem.

They must have pledgings, and grovelings, and for all I know, kiss-ings of their hinder parts as well.

This can best be insured if men make certain that God dies in a most unnoble way, debased and groveling.