How to Use grovel in a Sentence

grovel

verb

• 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.
• And after all of this, Emily Gilmore is still groveling for time with her.
  — Diana Bruk, Country Living, 5 Dec. 2016
• Even Trump had to grovel a bit in 2016 after the Access Hollywood tape came out.
  — Joel Mathis, The Week, 27 Oct. 2021
• And the United States is going cap-in-hand to Saudi Arabia to grovel for more oil production.
  — Bjorn Lomborg, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2022
• Employees have traditionally been the ones who have to grovel to get—and sometimes, to keep—a job.
  — Justin Brady, Quartz at Work, 24 Sep. 2019
• So funny to watch Steve Kerr grovel and pander when asked a simple question about China.
  — Connor Letourneau, SFChronicle.com, 12 Oct. 2019
• And back at Davos, May was practically groveling for partners to help them build it.
  — David Adler, New Republic, 21 Feb. 2018
• 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
• On that day, Biden touched down in Jeddah not just to grovel in front of Saudi Arabia’s corrupt head of state, but to whitewash his decrepit actions.
  — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 12 Oct. 2022
• 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
• Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour.
  — Savannah Behrmann, USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2020
• Thank 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
• Instead, Tillerson groveled before Trump in an attempt to renew his vows with the president.
  — Alex Shephard, New Republic, 4 Oct. 2017
• Add it all up and Iowa's days as a trendsetting state where dozens of would-be presidents must grovel before the gods of ethanol and direct democracy are probably over.
  — David Faris, TheWeek, 7 Feb. 2020
• Trump’s behavior in office has borne out all these assessments, yet their authors now grovel before him.
  — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 27 June 2018
• Hardly a surprise we are treated like Panama or El Salvador when government grovels for favours.
  — Margaret Hartmann, Daily Intelligencer, 13 July 2018
• Stewart instead paid a couple of visits to Storrs, Conn., from which Auriemma does not have to explain or much sell his program and certainly does not have to grovel to anyone.
  — Harvey Araton, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2016
• Ask, grovel, inquire, whatever. Do it now before those credits start to expire.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2020
• But then, to render Americans speechless is not the same as rendering them helpless, or hopeless, or silent, or grovelling.
  — Jeffrey Frank, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2017
• The season kicks off with Kendall forced to grovel to his father after his accident and failed coup while sister Shiv positions herself for a promotion.
  — Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 July 2019
• Black people are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.
  — Ryan Gaydos, Fox News, 6 Aug. 2018
• Christie Gunter, owner of China Baroque jewelry and accessories, has never groveled for business.
  — Joy Sewing, Houston Chronicle, 13 Mar. 2020
• 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
• Then-Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh was literally prowling the halls—really, every college coach in the country was prepared to grovel for Luck’s services.
  — Conor Orr, SI.com, 3 Sep. 2019
• Actress Fan Bingbing only re-emerged from months of house arrest after making a groveling public apology.
  — Yaqiu Wang, Twin Cities, 3 Oct. 2019
• At least three journalists said Slutsky tried to kiss them, touch them inappropriately or openly grovelled for their affections.
  — Damien Sharkov, Newsweek, 21 Mar. 2018
• Ms Cartier Brickell is alert to their diverse connotations, from love letter to grovelling apology to glaring status symbol.
  — The Economist, 14 Nov. 2019
• But luxury brands—whose largest single market is often China—offered grovelling apologies.
  — The Economist, 22 Aug. 2019

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024