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
I don’t fondle the clothes, the way customers do; I slap them into place, commanding them to hang straight, at attention, or lie subdued on the shelves in perfect order.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
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
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
Thoughtfully Biff fondled the tip of his nose.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
In movie after movie, Streep is constantly fidgeting with, fondling, removing or twirling her glasses.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 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
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
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
Jake loitered on a corner, fondling the change in his pocket.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
