How to Use grovel in a Sentence

grovel

verb
Definition of grovelnext
Synonyms for grovelnext
  • The peasants groveled before the king.
  • He had to grovel to get her to accept his apology.
  • He made a groveling apology to his girlfriend.
  • And after all of this, Emily Gilmore is still groveling for time with her.
    — Diana Bruk, Country Living, 5 Dec. 2016
  • Even Trump had to grovel a bit in 2016 after the Access Hollywood tape came out.
    — Joel Mathis, The Week, 27 Oct. 2021
  • And the United States is going cap-in-hand to Saudi Arabia to grovel for more oil production.
    — Bjorn Lomborg, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2022
  • Employees have traditionally been the ones who have to grovel to get—and sometimes, to keep—a job.
    — Justin Brady, Quartz at Work, 24 Sep. 2019
  • So funny to watch Steve Kerr grovel and pander when asked a simple question about China.
    — Connor Letourneau, SFChronicle.com, 12 Oct. 2019
  • And back at Davos, May was practically groveling for partners to help them build it.
    — David Adler, New Republic, 21 Feb. 2018
  • And for some teams expected to contend, perhaps there’s no need to grovel for their fans’ attention.
    — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 31 Mar. 2022
  • On that day, Biden touched down in Jeddah not just to grovel in front of Saudi Arabia’s corrupt head of state, but to whitewash his decrepit actions.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 12 Oct. 2022
  • Some African feminists argue that to wear a long, straight-haired wig or hair extension is to grovel to Western ideals of beauty.
    — The Economist, 15 Aug. 2020
  • Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour.
    — Savannah Behrmann, USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2020
  • Thank goodness we were spared a runoff pitting two Trump grovelers trying to out-grovel each other.
    — Erika D. Smith, Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2022
  • Instead, Tillerson groveled before Trump in an attempt to renew his vows with the president.
    — Alex Shephard, New Republic, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Add it all up and Iowa's days as a trendsetting state where dozens of would-be presidents must grovel before the gods of ethanol and direct democracy are probably over.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 7 Feb. 2020
  • Trump’s behavior in office has borne out all these assessments, yet their authors now grovel before him.
    — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 27 June 2018
  • Hardly a surprise we are treated like Panama or El Salvador when government grovels for favours.
    — Margaret Hartmann, Daily Intelligencer, 13 July 2018
  • Stewart instead paid a couple of visits to Storrs, Conn., from which Auriemma does not have to explain or much sell his program and certainly does not have to grovel to anyone.
    — Harvey Araton, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2016
  • Ask, grovel, inquire, whatever. Do it now before those credits start to expire.
    — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2020
  • But then, to render Americans speechless is not the same as rendering them helpless, or hopeless, or silent, or grovelling.
    — Jeffrey Frank, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2017
  • The season kicks off with Kendall forced to grovel to his father after his accident and failed coup while sister Shiv positions herself for a promotion.
    — Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 July 2019
  • Black people are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.
    — Ryan Gaydos, Fox News, 6 Aug. 2018
  • Christie Gunter, owner of China Baroque jewelry and accessories, has never groveled for business.
    — Joy Sewing, Houston Chronicle, 13 Mar. 2020
  • DeSantis has not been as willing to grovel at the prospect of a 2024 Trump candidacy as some other ambitious Republicans have.
    — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Then-Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh was literally prowling the halls—really, every college coach in the country was prepared to grovel for Luck’s services.
    — Conor Orr, SI.com, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Actress Fan Bingbing only re-emerged from months of house arrest after making a groveling public apology.
    — Yaqiu Wang, Twin Cities, 3 Oct. 2019
  • At least three journalists said Slutsky tried to kiss them, touch them inappropriately or openly grovelled for their affections.
    — Damien Sharkov, Newsweek, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Ms Cartier Brickell is alert to their diverse connotations, from love letter to grovelling apology to glaring status symbol.
    — The Economist, 14 Nov. 2019
  • But luxury brands—whose largest single market is often China—offered grovelling apologies.
    — The Economist, 22 Aug. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'grovel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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