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

He is especially fond of tigers, which he fondles like outsize tabby cats.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ha! then you maintain that a dog is a traitor, and a wolf is not a traitor; that a wolf does not bite the hand which fondles him and gives him to eat?

From Pan Michael An Historical Novel of Poland, the Ukraine, and Turkey. by Sienkiewicz, Henryk

“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

“It’s touchless, it’s considered safe and it’s prepackaged so products haven’t been fondled and breathed on,” she said.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2021

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

He fondled the broad white-striped face, pulled gently at the ears—little furry ears, lost in mane like a pony’s.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

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

This has been going on forever – certainly since Ovid wrote of Pygmalion kissing and fondling his statue until the gods took pity.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 29, 2017

Instead of accessing the quarter-life crisis through the exploits of a solitary protagonist bumbling and fondling his way up against the limitations society had set for him, this film focused on relationships.

From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2014

Jake loitered on a corner, fondling the change in his pocket.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers