different between cower vs grovel

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cowre, couren, curen, from Middle Low German kûren (“to lie in wait; linger”) or from North Germanic (Icelandic kúra (“to doze”)). Cognate with German kauern (“to squat”), Dutch koeren (“to keep watch (in a cowered position)”), Serbo-Croatian kutriti (“to lie in a bent position”). Unrelated to coward, which is of Latin origin.

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (intransitive) To crouch or cringe, or to avoid or shy away from something, in fear.

   He'd be useless in war. He'd just cower in his bunker until the enemy came in and shot him, or until the war was over.

   • 1700, John Dryden, "The Cock and the Fox", in Fables, Ancient and Modern, published March 1700:

     Our dame sits cowering o'er a kitchen fire.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To crouch in general.
   • 1764, Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller:

     Some sterner virtues o’er the mountain’s breast
     May sit, like falcons, cowering on the nest

   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     The mother bird had mov’d not,
     But cowering o’er her nestlings,
     Sate confident and fearless,
     And watch’d the wonted guest.

3. (transitive) To cause to cower; to frighten into submission.

Translations

See also

• coward
• cowardice

Etymology 2

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cherish with care.

Anagrams

• Crowe

English

Etymology

From Old Norse á grufu (“on one's belly”) ( > Old Norse grúfa (“to grovel”)).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?v?l

Verb

grovel (third-person singular simple present grovels, present participle (UK) grovelling or (US) groveling, simple past and past participle (UK) grovelled or (US) groveled)

1. (intransitive) To be prone on the ground.
2. (intransitive) To crawl.
3. (intransitive) To abase oneself before another person.
4. (intransitive) To be slavishly nice to someone or apologize in the hope of securing something.
5. (intransitive) To take pleasure in mundane activities. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

Anagrams

• Glover, Vogler, glover