fondle

/ˈfɒndəl/

fondle verb: to touch or stroke lovingly.

Verb

fondle (third-person singular simple present fondles, present participle fondling, simple past and past participle fondled)

(transitive) To touch or stroke lovingly.
- Mothers fondle their babies.
- idly fondling the cat's ears
Synonyms:

dandle, pet, touch up
(transitive) To grasp.
- The lovers fondled each other.
Synonyms:

clutch, grab, nim, beclasp, begrasp, begrip, belock, clasp, clench, clinch

Noun

fondle (plural fondles)

A caress.
- I gave the sleeping dog's ears a fondle as I walked past.

fondle meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

fondle in Tamil

அன்புடன் தடவு, அன்புடன் நீவு, அம்பாகத் தழுவு, கொஞ்சு

fondle in Urdu

چمکارنا, لاڈ کرنا, پھسلانا, پیار کرنا

fondle in Bengali

আদর করা, সোহাগ করা, সস্নেহে স্পর্শ করা

fondle in Telugu

to touch or stroke lovingly: నిమురు nimuru

More languagesFewer languages

fondle in Malayalam: മുത്തുക muttuka
fondle in Kannada: ಮುದ್ದಾಡು, ಮುದ್ದಿಸು, ಲಾಲಿಸು, ರಮಿಸು
fondle in Odia: ଭଲ ପାଇବା bhala pāibā
fondle in Arabic: لَاطَفَ lāṭafa, رَبَتَ rabata

Examples of fondle in a sentence

In the faint glow of a single blue bulb hanging from a clothesline they bussed and fondled.
All you do around here, Troy, is eat and couch and fondle the remote control.
He fondled her breast and ran his right hand along her entire trunk terminating at her buttocks.

All 16 example sentences with fondle

Synonyms of fondle

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of fondle

Forms of fondle

Verb
third-person singular present	fondles
present participle	fondling
past participle	fondled
past	fondled
Noun
plural	fondles

Past tense of fondle: fondled

Origin of fondle

From fond (“love, admire”) + -le (frequentative suffix).

Words formed from fondle

Questions about fondle

What does fondle mean?: Fondle means to touch or stroke lovingly.
What is fondle in Tamil?: Fondle in Tamil is அன்புடன் தடவு, அன்புடன் நீவு, அம்பாகத் தழுவு. See Fondle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is fondle?: Fondle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce fondle?: Fondle is pronounced /ˈfɒndəl/.
What is the past tense of fondle?: The past tense of fondle is fondled.

Words near fondle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: fondle (page history and authors); fondle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fondle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Fondle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); മുത്തുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); fondle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଭଲ ପାଇବା (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fondle.wav.

Cite this entry: “fondle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fondle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.