grooving (groving)

[Verbal n. of groove, v.] A system of grooves; the act or method of making grooves, or of providing with grooves. In small-arms the hexagonal grooving is only suitable for muzzle-loaders, but breech-loading cannon are still made on the original principle. W. W. Greener, The Gun, p. 113. groovy (grö'vi), a. [ groove + -yl.] 1. Of the nature of a groove; resembling a groove. Its main purpose is to keep the surface of the ivory slightly lubricated, so that the rag may not hang to it and wear it into rings or groovy marks. O. Byrne, Artisan's Handbook, p. 367. Hence-2. Figuratively, having a tendency to routine; inclined to a special or narrow course of thought or effort. [Colloq.] IMG:content-2704.png:[blocks in formation] grope (grop), v.; pret. and pp. groped, ppr. grop ing. [ME. gropen, gropien, grapien, grasp, touch, feel, search, perceive. Al that the fynger gropeth graythly he grypeth, Bote yf that that he gropeth greue the paume. Piers Plowman (C), xx. 126. I have touched and tasted the Lord, and groped Him with hands, and yet unbelief has made all unsavoury. Rogers . Come, thou 'rt familiarly acquainted there, I grope that, Middle ton and Dekker, Roaring Girl, ii. 1. 2. To search out by the sense of touch alone; find or ascertain by feeling about with the hands, as in the dark or when blind. But Strephon, cautious, never meant The bottom of the pan to grope. 2632 My chamber door was touched, as if fingers had swept the panels in groping a way along the dark gallery outside. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, xv. Hence-3t. To pry into; make examination or trial of; try; sound; test. But who so couthe in other thing him grope , Than hadde he spent al his philosophie. Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. Т., 1. 644. I rede we aske tham all on rowe, And grope tham how this game is begonne. York Plays , p. 188. How vigilant to grope men's thoughts, and to pick out somewhat whereof they might complain! Sir J. Hayward. Call him hither, 'tis good groping such a gull. gro the family Fringillid a: in the plural loosely synonymous with the nominal subfamily Cocco thraustinæ. Among familiar examples may be noted the hawfinch or hawthorn-grosbeak, Coccothraustes vulgar is, and the greenfinch or green grosbeak, Ligurinus chloris, both of Europe. (See cut under hawfinch.) The pine grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator, is common to both Europe and America. Peculiar to the latter country are the evening grosbeak, Hesperophona vesper tina; the blue grosbeak, Guiraca cærule a; the rose-breasted grosbeak, Za melodia (or Habia ) ludo vic i an a; the black-headed grosbeak, Z. (or H. ) melanocephala; and the cardinal or scarlet grosbeak, or cardinal-bird, Cardinal is virginia nus. (See cut under Cardinal is.) A few large-billed conirostral birds not of the family Fringillidæ receive the same name, as the grenadier, an African weaver-bird, and some of the thick-billed American tanagers, indicating a former very extensive use of grosbeak as an English book-name of birds of the Linnean genus Loxia in a wide sense. Le frequently written gro beak. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iv. 1. II. in trans. 11. To use the hands; handle. Hands they have and they shall not grope [authorized. version, "They have hands, but they handle not"]. 2. To feel about with the hands in search of something, as in the dark or as a blind person; feel one's way in darkne or obscurity; hence, earlier and prop. gro e , Wyclif , Ps. cxv. 7. to attempt anything blindly or tentatively. Go we groppe wher we graued hir, If we fynde ouzte that faire one in fere no we. York Plays , p. 489. Isa. lix. 10. While through the dark the shuddering sea Gropes for the ships. Lowell , Fancy's Casuistry. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope in the gray dusk, carrying each our poor little taper of selfish and painful wisdom. He thought our cardinal grosbeak , which he called the Virginia nightingale, as fine a whistler as the nightingale herself. The Century, XXIX. 778. [G., grosche , also gros , groschen (grō'shen), n. see a coin so called: gro , gros. Cf. gro et. A 6 small silver coin of various kinds current in Germany from the fourteenth cen tury to the pres- H. James, Jr., Pa . Pilgrim, p. 266. Specifically-3t. To feel for fish under the bank of a brook. I. Walton. See gropple . groper (gro'per), n. One who gropes; one who feels his way, as in the dark, or searches tentatively. A groper after novelties in any wise do flye. Drant, tr. of Horace's Ep. to Lollius. gropingly (grō'ping-li), adv. By groping. He descended the one step, and advanced slowly gropingly toward the gra -plat. Where was his daring stride now? Charlotte Bronte , Jane Eyre, xxxvii. gropple (grop'l), v. i.; pret. and pp. groppled , ppr. groppling . [Freq. of grope .] To grope. [Prov. Eng.] .. The boys had gone off to the brook to gropple in the bank for cray-fish. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xxx. groroilite (grō-roi'līt), n. [ as at Sèvres and elsewhere. II. n. 1. A textile fabric stronger or heavier than others of the same material.-2. [F., gro us , a coin (defined 'groat, but a different word), lit. 'great' or 'thick': see gro . Cf. groschen.] A coin of relatively large size: applied to-(a) Silver coins of various kinds current in France in the thirteenth and follow IMG:content-2705.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2706.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2707.png:[blocks in formation] Groschen of Hanover, 1866, British Museum. (Size of the original.) specimens are distinguished as silbergroschen, kaiser groschen, mariengroschen. The modern groschen is worth about 2 cents.