grope

Definition

To feel with or use the hands; to handle.

Etymology

From Middle English gropien, from Old English grāpian, related to grīpan (whence English gripe); compare also grip.

Example Sentences

• "a. 1812. Joseph Stevens Buckminster, sermon to grope about a little longer among the miseries and sensualities of a worldly life"
• "In the hollow shades of the roof could be seen pale dangling arms of ivy which had crept through the joints of the tiles and were groping in vain for some support, their leaves being dwarfed and sickly for want of sunlight; [...]"
• "Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers. But the earth, which the day before had looked light and loamy to the eye, was stiff and hard enough when one came to tackle it with naked hands, and in an hour's time I had done little more than further weary myself and bruise my fingers."