groper

See also: gröper

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹoʊpɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹoʊpə/

Etymology 1

From grope +‎ -er.

Noun

groper (plural gropers)

1. Agent noun of grope: one who gropes.
   • 1693, De La Quintinye [i.e., Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie], “Of Fruit-gardens and Kitchen-gardens. Chapter IV. How to Judge of the Maturity and Goodness of Fruits.”, in John Evelyn, transl., The Compleat Gard’ner; or, Directions for Cultivating and Right Ordering of Fruit-gardens; […], volume II, London: […] Matthew Gillyflower, […], and James Partridge, […], →OCLC, part V, page 86:

     [T]he Hand muſt likevviſe act its part, and concur therein [with the eye], tho' not to touch it [the fruit] roughly upon the Tree (nothing is more offenſive to me than thoſe Gropers, vvho, to gather one according to their Mind, vvill ſpoil a hundred by the violent impreſſion of their Unskillful Thumb) but I vvould have the Hand play its part in the manner I ſhall explain hereafter.

2. (US) An employee of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), especially one who performs inspections on passengers.

Derived terms

• groyper
• sandgroper

Etymology 2

Variant of grouper.

Noun

groper (plural gropers)

1. (Australia) Any of several marine fish, especially the Queensland groper or giant grouper, Epinephelus lanceolatus, of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
   • 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 230:

     Everybody knows that there are big groper in the Gulf of Carpentaria, but those that joined Norm Phantom on his journeys were the ones nobody else had ever seen.

2. (New Zealand) hapuku wreckfish (Polyprion oxygeneios)

Derived terms

• baldchin groper (Choerodon rubescens)
• bass groper (wreckfish; Polyprion americanus, syn. Polyprion moeone)

Anagrams

• Prerog.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

groper m or f

1. indefinite plural of grop

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

groper f

1. indefinite plural of grop