grov·el

(grŏv′əl, grŭv′-)

intr.v. grov·eled, grov·el·ing, grov·els also grov·elled or grov·el·ling

1. To behave in a servile or obsequious manner.

2. To lie or creep in a prostrate position, as in subservience or humility.

3. To give oneself over to base pleasures: "Have we not groveled here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?" (Walt Whitman).

[Back-formation from obsolete groveling, prone, face downward, from Middle English : (on) grufe, face downwards (from Old Norse ā grūfu, from grūfa, to grovel) + -ling, adv. suff.; see -ling².]

grov′el·er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

grovel, groveling - Grovel is a back-formation from groveling—which first meant "face downward in a prone or prostrate position."

See also related terms for prone.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

groveling - totally submissive

cringing, grovelling, wormlike, wormy

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He refused the proposal of the enterprising speculators by letter in these words: 'My house is a standing monument of the picturesque and beautiful, amid the mean, dishonest, and groveling constructions of a mean, dishonest, and groveling age.

View in context

I made about three passes in the air, and then there was an awful crash and that old tower leaped into the sky in chunks, along with a vast volcanic fountain of fire that turned night to noonday, and showed a thou- sand acres of human beings groveling on the ground in a general collapse of consternation.

View in context

"The policy of 'no more groveling' led by Foreign Minister (Avigdor) Lieberman, was transformed within a matter of days into a situation in which Israel was forced to dispatch an official and diplomatic apology," Israel's MAARIV newspaper said in an article entitled "Capitulation." The spat again turned the spotlight on the controversial minister, an ultra-nationalist who has said Israel should strike back at international criticism and defend its "national honor."

Israel-Turkey

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