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.
See Examples For:
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
She fondles a black cat, her familiar, and straddles a broomstick for a sky-ride when the wind is howling.”
From The Proud Prince by Justin H. (Justin Huntly) McCarthy
“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
More frequently now he looked at and fondled the one piece of evidence that he once had a visitor in his house: a child’s purple-and-white belt.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
Two posts later, she’s fondling ill falcons and owls at a Saudi veterinary hospital.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 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
“I was mired in envy,” Ozick told me, nervously fondling a napkin and smoothing and resmoothing the checkered burgundy tablecloth.
From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2016
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
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
