grope
verb (used without object)
to feel about with the hands; feel one's way.
had been groping
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past perfect progressiveof grope.past perfect progressive
Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.
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.
Here was what Bell had been groping for, on and off since his student days: some quantitative means of distinguishing Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics from other coherent, self-consistent possibilities.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 30, 2012
The Right Stuff: that was the name we had been groping for.
From Time Magazine Archive
In fact, Rickeyman Fresco Thompson, onetime Dodger infielder and now assistant director of the Dodgers minor league operations, himself made the crack that traditionalists had been groping for.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lysias, the democratic and anti-Spartan orator, had been groping for a similar solution as early as 384 b. c., and was prepared to make an even sharper sacrifice for it.
From Five Stages of Greek Religion by Gilbert Murray
Ultimately discovered the connection between the times and distances of the planets for which he had been groping all his mature life, and announced it in 1618:— Law III.
From Pioneers of Science by Sir Oliver Lodge
