Grope
(Grope) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Groped (gropt); p. pr. & vb. n. Groping.] [OE. gropen, gropien,
grapien, AS. grapian to touch, grope, fr. gripan to gripe. See Gripe.]
1. To feel with or use the hands; to handle. [Obs.]
2. To search or attempt to find something in the dark, or, as a blind person, by feeling; to move about
hesitatingly, as in darkness or obscurity; to feel one's way, as with the hands, when one can not see.
We grope for the wall like the blind.
Is. lix. 10.
To grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities ot a worldly life.
Buckminster. Grope
(Grope), v. t.
1. To search out by feeling in the dark; as, we groped our way at midnight.
2. To examine; to test; to sound. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Felix gropeth him, thinking to have a bribe.
Genevan Test. Groper
(Grop"er) n. One who gropes; one who feels his way in the dark, or searches by feeling.
Groping-ly
(Grop"ing-ly), adv. In a groping manner.
Gros
(||Gros) n. [F. See Gross.] A heavy silk with a dull finish; as, gros de Naples; gros de Tours.
Grosbeak
(Gros"beak) n. [Gross + beak: cf. F. gros-bec.] (Zoöl.) One of various species of finches
having a large, stout beak. The common European grosbeak or hawfinch is Coccothraustes vulgaris.
Among the best known American species are the rose-breasted (Habia Ludoviciana); the blue (Guiraca
cœrulea); the pine (Pinicola enucleator); and the evening grosbeak. See Hawfinch, and Cardinal grosbeak,
Evening grosbeak, under Cardinal and Evening. [Written also grossbeak.]
Groschen
(||Grosch"en) n. [G.] A small silver coin and money of account of Germany, worth about two
cents. It is not included in the new monetary system of the empire.
Grosgrain
(Gros"grain`) a. [F. Cf. Grogram.] Of a coarse texture; — applied to silk with a heavy thread
running crosswise.
Gross
(Gross) a. [Compar. Grosser ; superl. Grossest.] [F. gros, L. grossus, perh. fr. L. crassus
thick, dense, fat, E. crass, cf. Skr. grathita tied together, wound up, hardened. Cf. Engross, Grocer,
Grogram.]
1. Great; large; bulky; fat; of huge size; excessively large. "A gross fat man." Shak.
A gross body of horse under the Duke.
Milton. 2. Coarse; rough; not fine or delicate.
3. Not easily aroused or excited; not sensitive in perception or feeling; dull; witless.
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.
Milton. 4. Expressing, or originating in, animal or sensual appetites; hence, coarse, vulgar, low, obscene, or
impure.
The terms which are delicate in one age become gross in the next.
Macaulay.
