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
I bent down to fondle Jasper, my unfailing habit in moments of embarrassment.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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
A half dozen eager hands reach for the discarded stick, and the one who gets it fondles it lovingly.
From Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton D. Brooks
“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
On a sweltering summer weekday at Jaemor Farms, a large produce stand off a rural highway, shoppers fondled ripe peaches and sampled ice cream.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2022
“It’s touchless, it’s considered safe and it’s prepackaged so products haven’t been fondled and breathed on,” she said.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2021
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
Between sobs, I heard the squeals of delight from my sisters as they fondled my pups.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
“Boys in the alleyway, fondling marbles in their chilblained fingers or plotting Hurley Burley: these would remain foreign to him,” writes Li.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
In movie after movie, Streep is constantly fidgeting with, fondling, removing or twirling her glasses.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2022
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
Those who worried she couldn’t top 2017’s icy wonderland of lifeless foliage can breathe easily now that we’ve been graced with the image of Trump fondling ornaments with arms characteristically unmoored from her sleeves:
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2018
At the window he stood watching her, his eyebrows pulled together into waves of compassion, his tongue fondling the worn gold in his upper jaw.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
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