grovel


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Related to grovel: Gravol

grovel

(1)
To work interminably and without apparent progress. Often used transitively with "over" or "through". "The file scavenger has been groveling through the /usr directories for 10 minutes now." Compare grind and crunch. Emphatic form: "grovel obscenely".

grovel

(2)
To examine minutely or in complete detail. "The compiler grovels over the entire source program before beginning to translate it." "I grovelled through all the documentation, but I still couldn't find the command I wanted."
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References in periodicals archive ?
I do not intend to offer excuses or grovel about the decisions I've made," he told shareholders.
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Is the gay movement in this country so cowed by the appointed Bush junta that it must grovel before this despicable religious tyrant who is the Aaron to Bush's Moses?
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From tryouts to final product, wannabe boy band members alternately grovel and bitch to get a shot at the big time.
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He wants to argue that the duel was an aristocratic ritual that proved irresistible to bourgeois arrivistes, who were consequently weaned from the humane and rational values of their class to grovel before the brutal Standesehre of jack-booted Junkers.
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We know what it's like to go through tough times: the embarrassment of not being able to make a payment on time, the humiliation of having to grovel before your banker, the fear of missing a payroll.
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But the mass grovel at his stepping down is stomach-churning.
Bye bye, Phil.. I for one will not miss you; ANALYSIS

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