fondle
Americanverb (used with object)
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fondles,
present (3rd person singular)
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fondled,
past participle, past
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fondling
present participle
verb (used without object)
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fondles,
present (3rd person singular)
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fondled,
past participle, past
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fondling
present participle
verb
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(tr) to touch or stroke tenderly; caress
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archaic (intr) to act in a loving manner
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fondlesimple
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fondlessimple
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have fondledperfect
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has fondledperfect
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am fondlingprogressive
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are fondlingprogressive
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is fondlingprogressive
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have been fondlingperfect progressive
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has been fondlingperfect progressive
Past
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fondledsimple
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had fondledperfect
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was fondlingprogressive
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were fondlingprogressive
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had been fondlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fondle
First recorded in 1685–95; from obsolete verb fond “to play the fool, dote” (derivative of adjective fond ) + -le frequentative verb suffix; see origin at fond 1, -le
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr. Wainwright’s version does fondle the trademark pipe, which suggests the original Maigret as well as a painting by Magritte.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
Like for nervous people, “fidget toys” — sensory objects to fondle — help ground you, Darragh says, gripping a clementine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
As she paused to fondle a makeup brush, I heard the grip of her finger pads reluctant to give up the cellophane wrapper.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2019
If the joy of studying a masterpiece is, as Nabokov put it, “to fondle the details,” lingering inside the facsimile is unquestionably superior to being herded through the original tomb by a guide.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 20, 2016
Mammals characteristically nuzzle, fondle, hug, caress, pet, groom and love their young, behavior essentially unknown among the reptiles.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
In perhaps a glancing nod to Chekhov, Sidney fondles a metal-headed club called a mace in his collection and lightly asks what the use is of owning a mace “if you never use it?”
From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2014
To distinguish his jaunty Banquo from Macbeth, Mr. Cumming fondles a red apple.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2012
Maybe it's because of the remorseful way he fondles the dog's lifeless paws, or the pathetic manner in which Joseph hides out in a Christian charity shop.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2011
Baby fondles the nitroglycerin, the boys take time out to warm his milk, and everything comes off happily.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was of the true cat species—she purrs and fondles, but one must be continually on one's guard against her claws.
From Eyes Like the Sea by Mór Jókai
“It must be stressful to be touched and fondled by a bunch of strangers,” said Sachiko Azuma, head of Tokyo-based PEACE, which stands for Put an End to Animal Cruelty and Exploitation.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
“The label is essential,” Mr. Haslam said with a rasping cackle as he fondled a silver cigarette case he had gotten for Christmas.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2020
Both essayists described loneliness and anger, ecstasies of self-recrimination; neither spared much thought for the people they were said to have punched or fondled.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 10, 2018
“A woman in Santa Barbara, California, sent a $40,000 check. I fondled it for about five minutes and then sent it back. I told her I couldn’t accept money from strangers.”
From Washington Post ● Sep. 18, 2018
She took the dog into her arms and fondled and kissed it.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
The hypocrisy is rank enough; in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the comic-turned-moralizer yells, presumably at the Black parents he disapproves of, “Believe a child when she says somebody’s fondling her!”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2022
Two posts later, she’s fondling ill falcons and owls at a Saudi veterinary hospital.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2018
Ivory doesn't have much success in filling in the elisions, but Guadagnino's direction compounds the superficiality with camerawork that can't resist fondling every surface it encounters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2018
This has been going on forever – certainly since Ovid wrote of Pygmalion kissing and fondling his statue until the gods took pity.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 29, 2017
Then I would bring out the rice, and measure it, and run the grain through my fingers for sheer love of it, fondling it like a simpleton.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
