1. verb /ɡɹəʊp,ɡɹoʊp/
a) 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 ones way, as with the hands, when one can not see.
Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers. But the earth, which the day before had looked light and loamy to the eye, was stiff and hard enough when one came to tackle it with naked hands, and in an hours time I had done little more than further weary myself and bruise my fingers.
b) To touch (another person) closely and sexually
Wed been together 2 weeks, and have just been kissing and groping, but no sex yet.
2. noun /ɡɹəʊp,ɡɹoʊp/
An act of groping, especially sexually.
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.
Wikipedia foundation.