fondle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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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
Before he left he wanted to fondle his treasures once more, to reassure himself that they were an auspicious start to his new venture.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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
She was of the true cat species—she purrs and fondles, but one must be continually on one's guard against her claws.
From Eyes Like the Sea by Mór Jókai
“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
“The label is essential,” Mr. Haslam said with a rasping cackle as he fondled a silver cigarette case he had gotten for Christmas.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2020
Both essayists described loneliness and anger, ecstasies of self-recrimination; neither spared much thought for the people they were said to have punched or fondled.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 10, 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
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
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
In 1889 he depicted himself as a doleful, abandoned Jesus in Gethsemane; then as gimlet-eyed Satan fondling a snake; and finally, in a ceramic sculpture, as a bleeding severed head.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2011
The song titles – Choirs of Winter, Haze Interior, Cascades – are almost shoegaze parodying, but it's not all formless FX pedal fondling.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 31, 2010
Late that afternoon he came back from Lone Pine in a midnight blue Nash sedan, fondling the short, stubby gearshift that projected from its dashboard.
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
