Grōpe1, v. i.
v. i. [imp. & p. p. GROPED (grōpt); p. pr. & vb. n. GROPING.] [Prov. Eng. grape, A-S. grapian, gropian, allied to gripe; O. H. Ger. greifōn, allied to grīfan. See GRIPE.]
Sense 1. To use the hands; to feel with the hands; to handle. [Obs.]
Sense 2. To search or attempt to find something in the dark, or as a blind person, by feeling; to move about in darkness or obscurity; to feel one’s way, as with the hands.
We grope for the wall like the blind. Isa. lix. 10.
The dying believer leaves the weeping children of mortality to grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities of a worldly life. Buckminster.