grope

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“
It is only the touch of their hands that grope --

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To reach about uncertainly; feel one's way: groped for the telephone.
  2. intransitive verb To search blindly or uncertainly: grope for an answer.
  3. transitive verb To make (one's way) by reaching about uncertainly.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Like Daddy's jugmeloned grope, I remember thinking, and what I did next I did without a moment's conscious thought. —  F ;SF; - vol 098 issue 01 - January 2000
  • I watched Art grope, trying to think of someone he could ask us about in return. —  grave Surprise
  • But one does not stride far in darkness; he began to grope, and, finding the wall, followed it to an angle, turned, followed it past the two windows, and there in another corner came in violent contact with the reading-stand, overturning it. —  AHMM,December2007
  • Phin and I exchanged a glance like, “That was weird,” and then there was more hugging, including a hug from Reverend Antwerp that a less liberated woman would call a grope. —  RustyNail
  • Hooray for them Albert stood as she approached the table, opened his arms for the obligatory grope-hug, sporting a grin he probably thought was dashing or sophisticated. —  InterzoneScienceFictionandFantasyMagazine#212
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

grope:   groped ·  groping
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English gropen, from Old English grāpian.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English gropen, gropien, grapien, grasp, touch, feel, search, from Anglo-Saxon grāpian, grasp, handle, from grāp, the grip of the fingers, grasp of the hand, from grīpan (preterit grāp), seize, grasp, gripe: see gripe, the primitive, and cf. grasp, a derivative, of grope.
 

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/groʊp/
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