grovel

English

Etymology

From Old Norse á grufu (“on one's belly”) ( > Old Norse grúfa (“to grovel”)).

Pronunciation

Audio (US) (file)

Rhymes: -ɒvəl

Verb

grovel (third-person singular simple present grovels, present participle (UK) grovelling or (US) groveling, simple past and past participle (UK) grovelled or (US) groveled)

To be prone on the ground.
To crawl.
To abase oneself before another person.
To be slavishly nice to someone or apologize in the hope of securing something.
To take pleasure in mundane activities.

Translations

to be prone on the ground

Bulgarian: лежа по очи (leža po oči)
Finnish: olla rähmällään

Italian: giacere bocconi, giacere prono

to crawl

Bulgarian: пълзя (bg) (pǎlzja)
Catalan: arrossegar (ca)
Czech: plazit se
Finnish: ryömiä (fi), madella (fi), kontata (fi)

German: kriechen (de)
Italian: strisciare (it)
Turkish: sürünmek (tr)

to abase oneself

Bulgarian: унижавам се (unižavam se)
Finnish: nöyristellä (fi), madella (fi), olla rähmällään
French: s'abaisser (fr)
German: kriechen (de), katzbuckeln (de), auf dem Bauch rutschen

Italian: abbassarsi (it), umiliarsi (it)
Russian: унижа́ться (ru) (unižátʹsja), пресмыка́ться (ru) (presmykát'sja)
Turkish: sürünmek (tr)

to be slavishly nice in the hope of securing something

Bulgarian: подмазвам се (podmazvam se), раболепнича (bg) (rabolepniča)
Dutch: kruipen (nl)
Finnish: mielistellä (fi)
German: kriechen (de), schleimen (de)

Hebrew: התרפס‎ (he) (hitrapés)
Italian: ingraziarsi (it)
Turkish: ayaklarına/dizlerine kapanmak (tr), sürünmek (tr)

to take pleasure in mundane things

Finnish: rypeä (fi)

Italian: grufolarsi

Anagrams

Glover, Vogler, glover

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