fondle

Mr. Wainwright’s version does fondle the trademark pipe, which suggests the original Maigret as well as a painting by Magritte.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025

Like for nervous people, “fidget toys” — sensory objects to fondle — help ground you, Darragh says, gripping a clementine.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2023

As she paused to fondle a makeup brush, I heard the grip of her finger pads reluctant to give up the cellophane wrapper.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2019

If the joy of studying a masterpiece is, as Nabokov put it, “to fondle the details,” lingering inside the facsimile is unquestionably superior to being herded through the original tomb by a guide.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 20, 2016

Mammals characteristically nuzzle, fondle, hug, caress, pet, groom and love their young, behavior essentially unknown among the reptiles.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

In perhaps a glancing nod to Chekhov, Sidney fondles a metal-headed club called a mace in his collection and lightly asks what the use is of owning a mace “if you never use it?”

From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2014

To distinguish his jaunty Banquo from Macbeth, Mr. Cumming fondles a red apple.

From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2012

Maybe it's because of the remorseful way he fondles the dog's lifeless paws, or the pathetic manner in which Joseph hides out in a Christian charity shop.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2011

Baby fondles the nitroglycerin, the boys take time out to warm his milk, and everything comes off happily.

From Time Magazine Archive

The latter inquiring the cause of this unusual circumstance, was answered—"This greyhound fondles and pays his court to you this day as King of England, which you will surely be, and I shall be deposed."

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 477, February 19, 1831 by Various

“It must be stressful to be touched and fondled by a bunch of strangers,” said Sachiko Azuma, head of Tokyo-based PEACE, which stands for Put an End to Animal Cruelty and Exploitation.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2024

On a sweltering summer weekday at Jaemor Farms, a large produce stand off a rural highway, shoppers fondled ripe peaches and sampled ice cream.

From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2022

Last Friday, Fonda, who turned eighty in December, was sitting in a publicity office, wearing mod-ish pants, a black turtleneck, and a chain necklace that she occasionally fondled.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 26, 2018

“A woman in Santa Barbara, California, sent a $40,000 check. I fondled it for about five minutes and then sent it back. I told her I couldn’t accept money from strangers.”

From Washington Post ● Sep. 18, 2018

She took the dog into her arms and fondled and kissed it.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

The hypocrisy is rank enough; in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the comic-turned-moralizer yells, presumably at the Black parents he disapproves of, “Believe a child when she says somebody’s fondling her!”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2022

Those who worried she couldn’t top 2017’s icy wonderland of lifeless foliage can breathe easily now that we’ve been graced with the image of Trump fondling ornaments with arms characteristically unmoored from her sleeves:

From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2018

Jewelry is a recurring totem across her work, with characters fondling rings, bracelets, necklaces.

From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2018

Ivory doesn't have much success in filling in the elisions, but Guadagnino's direction compounds the superficiality with camerawork that can't resist fondling every surface it encounters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2018

Then I would bring out the rice, and measure it, and run the grain through my fingers for sheer love of it, fondling it like a simpleton.

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya