grov·el grovels grovelling grovelled in AM, use groveling, groveled1. disapproval If you say that someone grovels, you think they are behaving too respectfully towards another person, for example because they are frightened or because they want something. I don't grovel to anybody Speakers have been shouted down, classes disrupted, teachers made to grovel. a letter of grovelling apology
To creep on the earth, or with the face to the ground; to lie prone, or move uneasily with the body prostrate on the earth; to lie flat on one's belly, expressive of abjectness; to crawl