1. To work interminably and without apparent progress.Often used transitively with "over" or "through"."The file scavenger has been groveling through the /usr directories for 10 minutes now."Compare grind and crunch.Emphatic form: "grovel obscenely".2. To examine minutely or in complete detail."The compiler grovels over the entire source program before beginning to translate it.""I grovelled through all the documentation, but I still couldn' t find the command I wanted."[Jargon File]