seize upon
verb1
To grasp or take hold of (an object) suddenly, forcibly, or tightly.
- The child seized upon the cat's tail as soon as it was within reach.
2
To take up, embrace, enact, or turn eagerly to (a plan, idea, ideology, cause, practice, method, etc.); to grasp, understand, and accept quickly; to adopt wholeheartedly or vigorously.
- I heard her ideas and seized upon them immediately.
- The committee seized upon the new plan at once.
1 more example
- Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
3
To take possession of or claim (an idea, person, event, etc.) as one's own; to assimilate, absorb, annex, co-opt.
- After the controversy of her public statement, she has been the darling of right-wing groups who have seized upon her as the poster child of their cause.