gropes

verb

present tense third-person singular of grope
as in fumbles
to search for something blindly or uncertainly she groped in her purse for her car keys groping for the right answer

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of gropes In the video, a woman exposes herself and an officer, identified by investigators as Herman, gropes her, police said in a statement last year. — Kirsten Fiscus, Nashville Tennessean, 15 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gropes
  1. fumbles
  2. looks
  3. reaches
Verb
  • Lake Mary’s Remy Jarman fumbles the ball on his run and Oviedo recovers.
    — Buddy Collings, The Orlando Sentinel, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Buford scored 17 points off three Gainesville fumbles on punt plays.
    — Jack Leo, AJC.com, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of fumbles
Verb
  • What Hasty built instead compares each coach against the specific opposing talent his players faced, which means a good coach with a bad roster finally looks different from a bad coach with a good one.
    — Rhett Power, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
  • The format rewards behavior that looks nothing like traditional ecommerce.
    — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of looks
Verb
  • The glacier reaches towards the sea in an enormous frozen wall.
    — Sarah Kingdom, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
  • Arthur Miller’s enduring impact rivals Shakespeare’s, with a consistently socially conscious body of work that challenged power structures and society’s complicity during his time and still reaches modern audiences with the horrors of today.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of reaches

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groped
gropes
groping
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Cite this Entry

“Gropes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gropes. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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