Grovel
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."
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Jargon File]
