Grovel
Verb
Etymology: from the ancient adverb groveling (= on the face, prone), which was mistaken for the present participle of a non-existent verb grovel.
Third-person singular simple present: she (he) grovels
Indicative past, past participle: groveled, or grovelled
Present participle: groveling, or grovelling
Intransitively:
(Of a person, or other animal) To lie prone, or move on hands and feet, while the ventral part is in contact with the ground; this is, to be or locomote in a position in which the groveller’s front or ventral part is in contact, or almost in contact, with the ground; this is, to move or lie with the body prostrate upon the ground; this is, to lie flat with the face downwards, or move pronely
Synonyms: to creep, prostrate oneself; crawl
Antonyms: to stand, to raise oneself, to erect oneself, get up
It may be approximately translated by postrarse, in Spanish; prostrarsi, in Italian; se prosterner, in French.
Travelling along a very narrow road, […] we met a man leading a prisoner by a rope, followed by a policeman. […] He literally grovelled in the dust, and with every sentence that the policeman spoke raised his head a little, to bow it yet more deeply than before. It was all because he had no clothes on.
Isabella L. Bird (Unbeaten Tracks in Japan)
Away, fool, and know that my foot shall yet be upon your neck, while your false tongue licks the ground in which you grovel.
William Gilmore Simms (Southward Ho!)
When humans return, the dog grovels at the door, sheepishly wagging his tail, sometimes going belly up.
Cheryl S. Smith (The Rosetta Bone)
[…] Will grovelled among the straw in the barn.
Sarah R. Whitehead (Nelly Armstrong)
If you fall, do not lie grovelling; but rise upon your feet once more.
Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
[…] Finlay was led through the gate into the court of the castle, wherein he saw five cows […] in a corner behind a dunghill, whereon divers swine grovelled at their pleasure, and hens and cocks were rampaging.
John Galt (Spaewife)
lo! the youth was sighing heavy sighs and leaning to the ground on one elbow, and she flung herself by him on the ground, seeking for herbs that were antidotes to the poison of the serpent, grovelling among the grasses and strewn leaves of the wood, peering at them tearfully by the pale beams, and startling the insects as she moved.
George Meredith (The Shaving of Shagpat)
It was late in the afternoon before she awoke; for the sleeping draught had been very powerful. […]. Mrs Leigh did not turn away; nor move. [..]
'Mother, don't look at me! I have been se wicked!' and instantly she hid her face, and grovelled among the bedclothes, and lay like one dead—so motionless was she.
Elizabeth Gaskell (Lizzie Leigh)
As soon as I could collect my scattered senses, I found myself nearly suffocated, and grovelling in utter darkness among a quantity of loose earth, which was also falling upon me heavily in every direction.
Edgar Allan Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym)
For the sake of a warm fire and a pat on the head, the noble wolf, […], became a mewling dog groveling under the table for scraps.
Jack R Dunn (Hard)
***With the preposition on, or upon, before a noun designative of the part of the body which is in contact with the ground or other horizontal surface:
Endeavouring to inspire him [the sick man] with confidence, I made him lie grovelling on his belly, and, by cords tied to his feet, I raised up the hinder part of his body, so that he rested only on his breast and hands; and in this posture I administered to him another glyster, allowing him to remain in that position for half an hour.
Robert Kerr (A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels)
'Bessie,' cried Blanche, who had been grovelling on her knees before the gipsy fire, 'the kettle will go off the boil if you don't make tea instantly. If it were not your birthday I should make it myself.'
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (The Golden Calf)
He looked to the spot where Defarge the vendor of wine had stood, a moment before; but the wretched father was grovelling on his face on the pavement in that spot, and the figure that stood beside him was the figure of a dark stout woman, knitting.
Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
[…] he certainly never groveled on his knees the next day, crying and apologizing for hitting me.
Annmarie Mckenna (The Strength of Three)
Harry was touched with the lad's expressions of affection, and told him to get up from the ground where he was grovelling on his knees, embracing his master's.
William Makepeace Thackeray (The Virginians)
[…] he even thought of retracing his steps and grovelling upon his knees to implore forgiveness.
George William MacArthur (The mysteries of the court of London)
[…] by the way, upon a bridge, there was a knight that proffered sir Launcelot to joust, and Launcelot smote him down, and then they fought on foot a noble battle together […]. And so, at the last, sir Launcelot smote him down, grovelling upon his hands and knees, and then that knight yielded him, and sir Launcelot received him goodly.
Thomas Malory (The History of the renowned Prince Arthur)
The Emperor was at length shown sitting in a kind of Alcove at the upper end of the room, and the Dutch envoy was conducted towards the throne.
As soon as he had approached within a certain distance, the gentleman usher cried out with a loud voice, “Holanda Capitan”; upon these words the envoy fell flat upon the ground, and crept upon his hands and feet towards the throne. Still approaching, he reared himself upon his knees, and then bowed his forehead to the ground. These ceremonies being over, he was directed to withdraw, still grovelling on his belly, and going backwards like a lobster.
Oliver Goldsmith (The Citizen of the World)
***With the preposition on, or upon, before a noun designative of the ground or other horizontal surface:
She sucked it, just the end at first, then more and more of it until she could easily take most of it into her mouth, feel it against the back of her throat, without gagging; […] while her body twisted and grovelled on the bed.
Tim Harrack (Dissolving)
[…] butterflies derive their sustenance from the nectareous juices and secretions of fruits and flowers. Instead of grovelling on the “dungy earth,” they are generally seen either sporting in the air, or resting on the disk […]
Oliver Goldsmith (A history of the earth…)
[…] they fell both grovelling on the ground.
Thomas Malory (The History of the Renowned Prince Arthur)
[…] his appearance, as he grovelled bulkily upon the floor, moved her to such laughter as we laugh in nightmares.
Robert Louis Stevenson (Prince Otto)
***With the preposition before, followed by a noun designative of the animated being to whom the groveller signifies his (her) submissiveness by the prostration:
She humbled herself and grovelled before Charlotte.
William M. Thackeray (The Adventures of Philip)
If I become an honest man I shall become a poor man; and then nobody will respect me: nobody will admire me: nobody will say thank you to me. If on the contrary I am bold, unscrupulous, acquisitive, successful and rich, everyone will respect me, admire me, court me, grovel before me.
George Shaw (Too true to be good)
***With the preposition at, followed by a noun as feet, to signify, through the connotation of nearness, or the one of contact, that the groveller lowers himself so much as to lie level with the feet of someone else, in an attitude of submission:
What do you want from me? Do you want me to grovel at your feet and call you master?
Karen Erickson (Tangled)
The wretched old man, still beating his hands among his thin gray hair, slid from his chair to the ground, and groveled at Robert's feet.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Lady Audley's Secret)
What were our emotions, as we saw Growler with his fore-paws stationed on the window, holding Martha safely with her night-dress between his teeth, ready to spring at the last extremity, and suspending the little [… child] so carefully that she thought it but one of his customary gambols! With a little effort Edward reached the child, and Growler, springing to the ground, fawned and grovelled at our feet.
Caroline Howard Gilman (Recollections of a southern matron)
It was our friend Patch, […] who fawned and grovelled at the feet of his old master much after the manner of a fond spaniel that knows not how to testify his joy; now kissing his hand, now bounding in the air, now covering his face with his hands and blubbering aloud.
C. J. M. (Alice Sherwin)
***Grovel, in its connotation of locomotion, is not as usual as grovel, in its connotation of stationariness. In the first case, it may be construed with a preposition of motion (as to, toward, towards, under), with a prepositional construction (as out of), or with an adverb (as away, backward, backwards, about, etc.)
At the ringing of this shrill bell Rose shuddered like a maniac, and grovelled on her knees to Raynal, and seized his very knees and implored him to show some pity.
Charles Reade (White Lies)
[…] one or two [boys], who stumbled in their haste, not pausing to rise again, but grovelling out of reach upon their hands and knees.
Edward Bruce Hamley (Lady Lee’s Widowhood) Vol. I
She looks like she just groveled out of bed.
Susan G. Cline (The Legend of Night Wolf)
A dog thrust his head into the entrance and blinked wolfishly at them for a space, the slaver dripping from his ivory-white fangs. After a time he growled tentatively, and then, awed by the immobility of the human figures, lowered his head and grovelled away backward.
Jack London (Children of the Frost)
He grovelled away backwards on his knees across the field.
Graham Tottle (Point of Divergence)
The cockney strove in vain to protect himself from the infuriated boy. And in vain he strove to gain the shelter of the cabin. He rolled toward it, groveled toward it, fell toward it when he was knocked down.
Jack London (The Sea-Wolf)
[…] Churchill’s party stopped for a meal in a field which a Moroccan farmer was ploughing with oxen. His dog […] viewed their arrival with much interest, which increased when Mr. Churchill sat down in a large camp chair, and began to eat a piece of cold fried chicken. The dog grovelled towards him on his belly, with pleading eyes.
James Leasor (War at the top)
There was an old sack, […], before the fireplace, and four or five children were grovelling about, among the sand on the floor.
Charles Dickens (Sketches by Boz)
