看不見，用手摸
這一族就是核心畫面的原樣：真的看不見，真的只能用手。
verb · B2
To feel about with your hands to find something you cannot see.
摸黑找；伸手摸索
核心畫面
One picture holds the word: your eyes cannot help you, so your hands go out ahead of you. Think of a dark kitchen. You do not know what your fingers will meet next - a spoon, a bag of rice, finally the matches. The hand moves slowly, it is not sure, and it learns the world only by touching it. Everything this word does grows out of that hand. Change what the hand is reaching for and you get the other meanings: a doorway instead of an object, the right words instead of a doorway, and - in the use that fills the news - another person's body, which is why that use feels so wrong. The reaching hand is the same; who or what it lands on is what changes.
「grope」可以想成一個畫面：眼睛幫不上忙，於是手先伸出去。想像一間停電的廚房。你不知道下一秒手指會碰到什麼——一…更多收起
「grope」可以想成一個畫面：眼睛幫不上忙，於是手先伸出去。想像一間停電的廚房。你不知道下一秒手指會碰到什麼——一支湯匙、一袋米，最後才是火柴。那隻手動得很慢，不確定，只能靠碰到才知道那是什麼。這個字所有的意思都是從那隻手長出來的。換掉手要找的東西，就得到其他意思：從「東西」換成「門口」，從「門口」換成「說得出口的話」，還有新聞裡最常見的那一種——換成別人的身體，而那正是它讓人不舒服的地方。伸出去的手一直是同一隻，變的是它落在什麼上面。From the word’s history
The Wiktionary note in our packet traces grope to Old English grapian, related to gripan, the ancestor of grip and gripe. So the word has always been about the hand doing the work - which is exactly the core image, and why every branch of the word still starts from a hand reaching out.
證據包裡的 Wiktionary 說明指出，grope 來自古英文 grāpian，跟 grīpan（也就是 grip、gripe 的祖先）有關。所以這個字從一開始講的就是「手在做事」。這正好對上核心畫面，也解釋了為什麼它每一個意思都從一隻伸出去的手開始。
Wiktionary entry 'grope' (evidence packet, source_refs kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:571222400:29234 and :571251634:2277)
Three branches
在心裡摸索
黑暗從房間搬進腦袋裡：你伸出去，可是不知道會碰到什麼，也不知道方向對不對。
verb · C1
To try hard to find the right words to say, or the right answer to a problem, without any real idea of how to get there.
苦苦摸索（說法或辦法）
手落在別人身上
同樣是那隻摸索的手，但這次碰到的是一個人，而那個人多半沒有同意。
verb · B2
To move your hands over someone's body in a sexual way. It is used most often about touching a person who does not want to be touched, which is a serious and unwelcome act, and one that can be reported to the police.
性方面的撫摸；鹹豬手
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
gropeverb/ɡɹəʊp/
- 1
obsoleteTo feel with or use the hands; to handle.
- 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.
- a. 1812. Joseph Stevens Buckminster, sermon to grope about a little longer among the miseries and sensualities of a worldly life
- In the hollow shades of the roof could be seen pale dangling arms of ivy which had crept through the joints of the tiles and were groping in vain for some support, their leaves being dwarfed and sickly for want of sunlight; [...]
- 3
To touch (another person) closely and (especially) sexually.
- The parents found the couple kissing and groping.
- 4
To intentionally and inappropriately touch or rub against another person, in such a manner as to make the contact appear accidental, for the purpose of one's sexual gratification.
- That old man groped that girl on the train!
- 5
obsoleteTo examine; to test; to sound.
- Felix gropeth him, thinking to have a bribe.
gropenoun/ɡɹəʊp/
- 1
informalAn act of groping, especially sexually.
- The old man tried to get a quick grope of the young lady on the train.
- 2
obsoleteAn iron fitting of a medieval cart wheel.
- Gropes appear to be pieces of iron binding together the inner joint of the fitting, and grope-nails to have been used for fastening these to the wood.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。