grasp meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

grasp

verb

UK /ɡɹɑːsp/ · US /ɡɹæsp/

Etymology From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English *grǣpsian, from Proto-West Germanic *graipisōn, from Proto-Germanic *graipisōną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to take, seize, rake”), the same ultimate source as grab. Cognate with Saterland Frisian grapsje (“to grab, grasp”), German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), German grapsen and grapschen, Old English grāpian ("to touch, feel, grasp"; > Modern English grope). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).

To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.

How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep—while I weep! / O God! can I not grasp / Them with a tighter clasp?1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 40:

To understand.

I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.

To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.

Synonyms: 30 terms
clasp, grip, hold tight, comprehend, fathom, jump at the chance, jump on, beclasp, begrasp, begrip, belock, clench, clinch, cling, clutch, enclasp, fang, fondle, glaum, grab, grabble, grasp, hang on, hold on, hold, nab, nim, seize, stranglehold, take
Antonyms: let go, release
Derived terms: a drowning man will grasp at a straw, a drowning man will grasp at straws, begrasp, engrasp, foregrasp, graspability, graspable, grasp at a straw, grasp at straws, grasper, grasp for straws, grasp the nettle, misgrasp, regrasp, ungrasp
Related terms: grab, grapple, grave, groove, grovel, capture
Hyponyms: embrace, foregrasp, snatch, handle

grasp

noun

Figuratively, Sometimes Grip.

A vagrant gust of wind snatched the note from my grasp.
in the tyrant's grasp

3 more examples

What the anvil? what dread grasp. Dare its deadly terrors clasp!1826, William Blake, “The Tyger”, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience:
Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:
If a mirror does slip from your grasp, do not attempt to catch it. Just get out of the way.1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 44:

Understanding.

There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.1859, George Meredith, chapter 13, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.

The goal is within my grasp.

Derived terms: beyond someone's grasp, graspful, graspless, handgrasp, light grasp, misgrasp, regrasp, tripod grasp

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