FONDLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fondle mean? 

• FONDLE (verb)
  The verb FONDLE has 1 sense:

1. touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner

  Familiarity information: FONDLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FONDLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fondle    ... he / she / it fondles   
Past simple: fondled   
Past participle: fondled   
-ing form: fondling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

caress; fondle

Context example:

They fondled in the back seat of the taxi

Hypernyms (to "fondle" is one way to...):

stroke (touch lightly and repeatedly, as with brushing motions)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fondle"):

paw (touch clumsily)

grope (fondle for sexual pleasure)

dandle (pet)

pet (stroke or caress in an erotic manner, as during lovemaking)

chuck; pat (pat or squeeze fondly or playfully, especially under the chin)

nose; nuzzle (rub noses)

pet (stroke or caress gently)

tickle (touch or stroke lightly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

fondling (affectionate play (or foreplay without contact with the genital organs))

 Context examples 

My own Betsey (fondling her), you have not the luck of such a good godmother.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He lay and dozed, while she fondled his hair, looked down on his closed eyes, and loved him without reserve.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“He is your brother,” said my mother, fondling me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Tim Keenan stepped in and bent over Cherokee, fondling him on both sides of the shoulders with hands that rubbed against the grain of the hair and that made slight, pushing-forward movements.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I need not tell you how my dear mother wept over me and fondled me, for you who have mothers will know for yourselves, and you who have not will never understand how warm and snug the home nest can be.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He lounged back in a careless position, and yawned repeatedly as though heartily weary of the proceedings, stooping from time to time to fondle a shaggy Spanish greyhound which lay stretched at his feet.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their parents are suffered to see them only twice a year; the visit is to last but an hour; they are allowed to kiss the child at meeting and parting; but a professor, who always stands by on those occasions, will not suffer them to whisper, or use any fondling expressions, or bring any presents of toys, sweetmeats, and the like.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

One by one he took out a succession of beautiful rifles, opening and shutting them with a snap and a clang, and then patting them as he put them back into the rack as tenderly as a mother would fondle her children.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“This is my little elephant, sir,” said Mr. Omer, fondling the child.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She held her left hand in front of her, covered with a red velvet glove, and on the wrist a little brown falcon, very fluffy and bedraggled, which she smoothed and fondled as she walked.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)