Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Grope \Grope\ (gr[=o]p), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Groped}
   (gr[=o]pt); p. pr. & vb. n. {Groping}.] [OE. gropen, gropien,
   grapien, AS. gr[=a]pian to touch, grope, fr. gr[imac]pan to
   gripe. See {Gripe}.]
   1. To feel with or use the hands; to handle. [Obs.]

   2. To search or attempt to find something in the dark, or, as
      a blind person, by feeling; to move about hesitatingly, as
      in darkness or obscurity; to feel one's way, as with the
      hands, when one can not see.

            We grope for the wall like the blind. --Is. lix. 10.

            To grope a little longer among the miseries and
            sensualities ot a worldly life.       --Buckminster.

Source : WordNet®

groping
     adj : acting with uncertainty or hesitance or lack of confidence;
           "a groping effort to understand" [syn: {hesitant}]