GROPING

groping

(adjective) acting with uncertainty or hesitance or lack of confidence; “a groping effort to understand”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Verb

groping

present participle of grope

Noun

groping (plural gropings)

An act of groping; a grope.

Source: Wiktionary

GROPE

Grope, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Groped; p. pr. & vb. n. Groping.] Etym: [OE. gropen, gropien, grapien, AS. gr to touch, grope, fr. gr to gripe. See Gripe.]

1. To feel with or use the hands; to handle. [Obs.]

2. To search or attempt to find something in the dark, or, as a blind person, by feeling; to move about hesitatingly, as in darkness or obscurity; to feel one's way, as with the hands, when one can not see. We grope for the wall like the blind. Is. lix. 10. To grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities ot a worldly life. Buckminster.

Grope, v. t.

1. To search out by feeling in the dark; as, we groped our way at midnight.

2. To examine; to test; to sound. [Obs.] Chaucer. Felix gropeth him, thinking to have a bribe. Genevan Test. (Acts xxiv. ).

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition