grovel

ジャック・ロンドンのWhite Fangを読んでいます。主人公のWhite Fangはオオカミの血が混じっている混血の犬で、生まれた時は野生の暮らしをしていましたが、元々母犬が暮らしていたインディアンの集団に出会います。
He came cringing and crawling into the firelight. Grey Beaver saw him, and stopped munching the tallow. White Fang crawled slowly, cringing and grovelling in the abjectness of his abasement and submission.
この後インディアンのGrey Beaverと一緒に暮らすことになりますが、上の文に出てきた "grovelling" が分からないので辞書を引きます。
・Oxford Dictionary: Lie or move abjectly on the ground with one’s face downward: she was groveling on the floor in fear
・Vocabulary.com: To grovel is to beg like a hungry dog. You don't have to be a canine, though, you might grovel for a better grade (please don't).
If you grovel you risk getting the opposite of what you want, because people (like teachers) don't like people down at their feet begging for something. But if you cheat on your date, you may have to grovel to get him or her back. Grovel also means to crawl around on your belly -- you could grovel on gravel, but that might really hurt. The word comes from the Vikings, in Old Norse the word grufe means "prone" (lying flat) which is probably how Vikings liked to see the people they were conquering. You grovel when you want something but also when you're afraid.
"grovel on gravel" は語呂が良いので覚えやすそう。けれど、絶対したくない事ですね。