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.
Recent Examples on the WebThank 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 Before the month was over McCarthy visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago to grovel for forgiveness. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 22 Apr. 2022 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 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 Soon McCarthy was on a flight to Palm Beach, Fla., to grovel and beg forgiveness.Los Angeles Times, 7 Jan. 2022 Even Trump had to grovel a bit in 2016 after the Access Hollywood tape came out. Joel Mathis, The Week, 27 Oct. 2021 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 Ask, grovel, inquire, whatever. Do it now before those credits start to expire. Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2020 See More
Word History
Etymology
back-formation from groveling prone, from groveling, adverb, from Middle English, from gruf, adverb, on the face (from Old Norse ā grūfu) + -ling