groveler


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grov·el

 (grŏv′əl, grŭv′-)
intr.v. grov·eled, grov·el·ing, grov·els also grov·elled or grov·el·ling
1. To behave in a servile or obsequious manner.
2. To lie or creep in a prostrate position, as in subservience or humility.
3. To give oneself over to base pleasures: "Have we not groveled here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?" (Walt Whitman).
[Back-formation from obsolete groveling, prone, face downward, from Middle English : (on) grufe, face downwards (from Old Norse ā grūfu, from grūfa, to grovel) + -ling, adv. suff.; see -ling2.]
grov′el·er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.groveler - someone who humbles himself as a sign of respectgroveler - someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if he had no self-respect
apple polisher, bootlicker, fawner, groveller, truckler
crawler, sycophant, toady, lackey - a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
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March, with his respectable legs in the air, and beside him, likewise prone, was Demi, trying to imitate the attitude with his own short, scarlet-stockinged legs, both grovelers so seriously absorbed that they were unconscious of spectators, till Mr.
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Auden seem suitable: "A mortal fear of talking through his hat, / A moral mission to be understood" Or else Noel Coward's self-description: "I have colossal pride, which is why I have absolutely no vanity." To every dirigiste groveler who has wrapped himself in Clio's mantle since 9/11, Taylor's worldview offers a standing reproach: "You should never," he warned, "ask a historian to predict the future--we have enough trouble predicting the past."
A.J.P. Taylor is history: he made us see World War II anew--and merits another look himself
In a tangled web of tired cliches, Daughtry crawls back to his lover like a dung beetle hot on the trail of some dung, on, you guessed it, "Crawling Back to You." As a belly-aching, bridge-burning, pride-swallowing, short-sighted, table-turning, thread-hanging groveler, Daughtry comes to the harsh realization, "Just like that/I'm crawling back to you/Just like you said I would, yeah." While the song starts off the sniffling, self-pitying wimp route, it soon erupts with Daughtry's ever-so-earnest angst, rocking guitar riffage and powder-keg drum.
Daughtry doesn't `Break the Spell'

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