All 3 Uses of
grovel
in
1984, by Orwell
- But before death (nobody spoke of such things, yet everybody knew of them) there was the routine of confession that had to be gone through: the grovelling on the floor and screaming for mercy, the crack of broken bones, the smashed teeth, and bloody clots of hair.
p. 103.4 *grovelling = showing submission or fearunconventional spelling: This is a British spelling. Americans use groveling.
- He felt the smash of truncheons on his elbows and iron-shod boots on his shins; he saw himself grovelling on the floor, screaming for mercy through broken teeth.
p. 228.9
- I saw them gradually worn down, whimpering, grovelling, weeping — and in the end it was not with pain or fear, only with penitence.
p. 255.8
Definition:
to show submission or fear -- sometimes by crawling or lying face down