grope
Americanverb (used without object)
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gropes,
present (3rd person singular)
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groped,
past participle, past
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groping
present participle
verb (used with object)
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gropes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
groped,
past participle, past
-
groping
present participle
-
to seek by or as if by groping.
to grope one's way up the dark stairs.
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Slang. to touch or fondle (someone) for sexual pleasure, especially without the person’s consent.
noun
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gropes
plural
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an act or instance of groping.
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Slang. an act or instance of sexually fondling another person.
verb
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to feel or search about uncertainly (for something) with the hands
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(intr; usually foll by for or after) to search uncertainly or with difficulty (for a solution, answer, etc)
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(tr) to find or make (one's way) by groping
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slang (tr) to feel or fondle the body of (someone) for sexual gratification
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gropesimple
-
gropessimple
-
have gropedperfect
-
has gropedperfect
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am gropingprogressive
-
are gropingprogressive
-
is gropingprogressive
-
have been gropingperfect progressive
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has been gropingperfect progressive
Past
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gropedsimple
-
had gropedperfect
-
was gropingprogressive
-
were gropingprogressive
-
had been gropingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of grope
Before 900; Middle English gropien, Old English grāpian, derivative of grāp “grasp”; akin to gripe, grasp
Explanation
When you grope for something, you try to get a grip on it. If you drop your flashlight in a dark cave, you might grope around for it. Beware of snakes! If you're asked a question and you grope for an answer, you're at a loss for words. And if you can't find your cellphone, you might grope around in your backpack, hoping it just got buried beneath your homework. You can also grope another person, although I wouldn't recommend it: grope is usually used to describe touching that is unwanted.
Vocabulary lists containing grope
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 16–19
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The Cay
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"Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe
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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:
From a leg-stump line, the ball appeared to then move in the air in the opposite direction, past Cook's crooked grope to kiss the top of off stump.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2025
You open your eyes and grope for your phone.
From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2024
Scott, delivers a powerhouse performance, despite having to occasionally grope for a line that isn’t immediately in reach.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2024
The grinning actors grope for meaning that lies beneath.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2023
I fix my eyes on a shell-hole; the moment the light dies I scurry over into it, grope farther, spring into the next, duck down, scramble onward.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
There’s some swing for Kumar, however, and Guptill is beaten later in the over when he gropes at a wider outswinger.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 9, 2019
Partly that’s because most corporate media wouldn’t have carried Hedges’ denunciation of everything it gropes us for.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2019
He slams on the brakes, opens the door, gropes for his cane.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 10, 2018
It all seemed pretty incoherent, at any rate, which was perhaps intended to signal Dany’s ongoing fumbling as she gropes toward … hey look, its Drogon!
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2015
Starry gropes after the material that's been yanked from her hands, but it falls out of reach and the whole quilt tumbles down the chute.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
The board groped its way through early decisions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president, is pressing charges against a man who groped her on the street and is pushing nationwide measures against sexual harassment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 17, 2025
A Loudoun County jury found former superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of unlawfully discharging a teacher who reported being repeatedly groped by a student.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
Mr Johnson faced criticism for being too slow to suspend Mr Pincher from the parliamentary party, following allegations he had groped two men in a private members' club.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2022
He flipped on the flashlight and groped along the side of the car, looking for the toggle switch that released the trunk.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
Ms. Dunn’s underlying theme is that humans spent centuries groping in the dark for their position, built a system that ended that groping, and then forgot the dark was ever there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
She’s also spinning an intergenerational tale of Black women groping past their initial distrust to a deeper understanding of what they have in common.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
Selecting Isak ahead of him lacked logic, smacking of a manager groping for answers, almost trying to get an expensive signing to play himself into the team.
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2025
“We are but darkened groping souls, that know not the light often because of its very blinding radiance,” wrote W.E.B.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2024
Just then it seemed my chamber-door was touched; as if fingers had swept the panels in groping a way along the dark gallery outside.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
