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grasp

[grasp, grahsp]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

to seize and hold by or as if by clasping with the fingers or arms.

to seize upon; hold firmly.

to get hold of mentally; comprehend; understand: I don't grasp your meaning.

verb (used without object)

to make an attempt to seize, or a motion of seizing, something (usually followed by at or for): a drowning man grasping at straws; to grasp for an enemy's rifle.

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Grasp is one of our favorite verbs.

So is bowdlerise. Does it mean:

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

to spend time idly; loaf.

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noun

the act of grasping or gripping, as with the hands or arms: to make a grasp at something.

a hold or grip: to have a firm grasp of a rope.

one's arms or hands, in embracing or gripping: He took her in his grasp.

one's power of seizing and holding; reach: to have a thing within one's grasp.

hold, possession, or mastery: to wrest power from the grasp of a usurper.

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10.

mental hold or capacity; power to understand.

11.

broad or thorough comprehension: a good grasp of computer programming.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English graspen, grapsen; cognate with Low German grapsen; akin to Old English gegræppian to seize (see grapple)

Related forms

grasp·a·ble, adjective

grasp·er, noun

grasp·less, adjective

re·grasp, verb (used with object)

un·grasp·a·ble, adjective

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un·grasped, adjective

COLLAPSE

Synonyms
1. grip, clutch; grab. See catch. 9. clutches. 10. scope, comprehension. Grasp, reach refer to the power of seizing, either concretely or figuratively. Grasp suggests actually seizing and closing the hand upon something (or, figuratively, thoroughly comprehending something) and therefore refers to what is within one's possession or immediate possibility of possession: a good grasp of a problem; immense mental grasp. Reach suggests a stretching out of (usually) the hand to touch, strike, or, if possible, seize something; it therefore refers to a potentiality of possession that requires an effort. Figuratively, it implies perhaps a faint conception of something still too far beyond one to be definitely and clearly understood.

Antonyms
1. release.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To grasp

Example Sentences

Plenty of them are leaving town, wanting as much space as possible from the ghosts and the day's enduring grasp.

The best way to help political evil's victims is to grasp why they are being victimized.

But alas few have the philosophy to grasp this small concept.

EXPAND

Plenty of them are leaving town, wanting as much space as possible from the ghosts and the day's enduring grasp.

The best way to help political evil's victims is to grasp why they are being victimized.

But alas few have the philosophy to grasp this small concept.

His long ?ngers grasp the handlebars ?rmly, and he checks his balance.

Your tenuous grasp of the state of international politics is as poor as your tenuous grip on reality.

Now scientists are trying to get a grasp on the planets that have been found.

Tuck in bread, and you have a showy first course or main dish that's easy to grasp.

Also, it helps to possess a strong grasp of neuroscience.

But the bankers' testimony showed a stunning failure, even now, to grasp the nature and extent of the current crisis.

Every philosopher knows that a grasp of the key ones counts as literacy in the subject.

Yet their grasp of how the weather works in the rest of the solar system leaves a lot to be desired.

The black rhino is known for its aggressiveness and its nimble upper lip, which it uses to grasp and browse on shrubs.

Hence, there is no hope to ever be able to grasp our world to its wholeness.

Grasp the similarities, and you can start to understand the differences.

To grasp the new era, you must imagine that bandwidth will be free and watts scarce.

The purpose behind collecting such data is to get a better grasp of the outcomes for students participating in those programs.

We simply don't grasp how enormous the effect of small changes can be, even within our own lifetimes.

Unlike their raccoon relatives, kinkajous have special tails that allow them to grasp tree branches and hang upside down.

Here he continues to display his sophomoric grasp of science with these musings.

Anyone who has bats in his belfry will quickly grasp the concept.

Anne opted for a degree in political science, where she was able to grasp the key concepts almost entirely from lectures.

Allow yourself to grasp the importance of these developments as they relate to mankind and you will have plenty of material.

Most seem unable to grasp the lessons of the last crisis, still less to anticipate the next one.

They can, for instance, imagine another person's experiences and grasp cause and effect.

Notice how the hand preforms to the shape of an object before it attempts to grasp it.

On the one hand, it goes almost without saying that citizens should be able to grasp how their government works and for whom.

To grasp this trend, one has first to recognise that the world is exceedingly wasteful.

Mathmaticians are attempting to show graphically what the mathmatically impaired of us can't grasp.

Here's our helpful guide to getting a better grasp on these web-connected sets.

Prior stints at technology companies gave him a grasp of the technical infrastructure needed.

The resources with which to grasp them are great, as is the determination.

But only recently have scientists begun to grasp how the environment affects the brain to produce psychological changes.

Wired asked five experts to share their grasp of the future of robotics.

Watch their faces light up when they grasp the full implications of what you are saying.

Perhaps a fresh grasp on the concept is what is needed here.

The sesame seed-sized, six-legged insects grasp human hair strands and feed on human blood.

But few have been able to grasp the risks of getting into managed care.

It really illustrates the concepts in an interesting and easy to grasp manner.

Not unless it's by a restaurateur with a strange grasp of gravitational laws.

It is intuitively easier to grasp how a carbon cap will slow global warming.

With some mental effort, it's possible to actually grasp a sense of the size of the solar system.

Lots of people still don't grasp the concept of a liquidity trap.

In order to understand how this new technique works, it is important to grasp the basics of the human knee.

His grasp of economics was hazy, but that of foreign affairs was weaker still.

Best for pre-school children developing a grasp of numbers.

And since each side is a mirror of the other, you really only have to learn one set of controls to grasp the other.

The generals were slow to grasp this reality, and the soldiers paid the cost of it.

New research shows that some uneducated adults and children appear to have an almost innate grasp of geometry and its concepts.

Ceci fail to grasp how much harder than others those of us with learning disabilities have to work.

Nor does their lack of guilt and shame seem to spring from a deficient grasp of right and wrong.

The sheer scale of the solar system's largest anticyclone is difficult for a traveler to grasp.

Outfitted with sensors that could see objects, grasp them with enough force to hold but not crush.

As the approved pundits stumbled to grasp the stunning.

George cowers, and he knocks her down and snatches the fruit from her grasp.

Scientists are struggling to get a grasp on the huge volumes of water flowing through the world's oceans.

Ability to grasp the big picture and pay attention to detail at the same time to be able to test and debug effectively.

It may take a physicist to grasp the full significance of this, the second law of thermodynamics.

Since property seemed for so long to be a one-way bet, some still find it hard to grasp that prices can ever fall.

His long fingers grasp the handlebars firmly, and he checks his balance.

The variations are infinite, once you grasp the basic method.

Students who demonstrated their grasp of the material were credited accordingly when the exam was graded.

He has a historian's grasp of the period and a novelist's gift for character.

Opossums use their tails to grasp branches as they climb trees.

Balance isn't a thing you can grasp or a noun of any sort to be.

To really grasp the details of how evolution and ecology work, you have to track them in their natural habitats.

All it takes is a grasp of theoretical physics, control of the space-time continuum, and maybe a ball of cosmic.

After a great effort at rehabilitation, he seems to have no grasp of the enormity of his actions.

Typically that thinking displays two failures: the failure to grasp the distinctiveness of tasks.

It's amazing that we've become so frightened that we're willing to grasp at straws that haven't been shown to be effective.

Once you have worked yourself into a caffeine-deprived frenzy, reach out your hand and try and grasp your liquid gold.

His team has a generally firm grasp of this voguish technique of food preparation.

Merely to state these numbers is to grasp why policies will have to change.

We can now get a grasp of our own feelings and actions by looking beyond our minds to our bodies and the world around.

Squeamish readers will already be imagining the horrific problems which arise should the clippers slip from my grasp.

What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her.

She had accepted the basic guidelines about citation but could not quite grasp all the nuances of their application.

Dylan, who has a way of insinuating that any viewer who doesn't grasp the full, richness.

Yet another may have a good grasp of campus politics.

But it is not hard to grasp the case for keeping more species.

Most advocates believe that it is inhumane to punish individuals who did not adequately grasp what they were doing.

In truth, she had by then a thorough grasp of the engineering involved.

Either way, studies find, this biological pacemaker has a poor grasp of longer intervals.

It is the place where concepts are learned that young, forming minds cannot generally grasp.

The idea that options should be anything other than a cost has never been easy for simple folk to grasp.

Do you have any grasp on the extent your daily lives, at home and at work, depend on the work of engineers.

Or they reverse letters and fail to grasp critical concepts of.

Again, it appears that some people have failed to grasp this point.

We need to grasp this concept of change and embrace and understand.

Both patients were unable to the grasp the rules of social behavior or follow them.

One young woman had the young man by the wrist and another young woman had a firm grasp on the skirt his coat.

Moreover, information that some students might grasp immediately could leave those from another culture befuddled.

Moreover, knowledge has become so specialised that it is impossible for any individual to grasp the whole picture.

It is less intuitive to grasp that when a gas condenses to a.

Grasp the other person's right hand, intertwine fingers, and close.

Many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious academic misdeed.

To really grasp evil you will need far better models.

New research on when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts could reshape early education.

For whatever reason, she slips from his grasp and immediately begins to fall.

Look, this climate change stuff is obviously well beyond your grasp.

They're primitive inventions designed by people who didn't fully grasp the consequences of their actions.

Have a helper grasp the outer door along a long edge while you grasp the other edge.

So many students seem unable to grasp the concept of plagiarism.

Older children will probably not find it challenging enough, younger children won't grasp the context.

But many allow for a time of reflection until they can begin to grasp the meaning and approach it within a creative context.

As students and enrollment officials alike grasp for certainty in an uncertain time, the admissions cycle keeps spinning faster.

Obviously, you don't seem to have a grasp of the innate drive of a human being to survive, no matter what.

The infant begins to grasp blocks or cubes using what's called the ulnar-palmar grasp technique.

But inviting people back to complete credentials that are within their grasp is not totally cynical.

He has a quick, intuitive grasp of technologies and their military applications.

Although a fuller grasp of microbial genetics promises to boost wellness even further, plenty of big unknowns remain.

Brace both elbows against your rib cage and, with your free hand, grasp the wrist of the hand that's holding the phonecam.

There are still people who can't grasp the difference between weather and climate.

Think about the body's healing process and the technology behind self-healing plastics is easy to grasp.

And for an encore seems to have no grasp whatsoever of modern geologies acceptance of neo-catastrophism.

Sometimes it has to wait until their mind is ready to grasp the concepts.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

grasp (ɡrɑːsp)

—vb (when intr, often foll by at)
1.	to grip (something) firmly with or as if with the hands
2.	to struggle, snatch, or grope (for)
3.	(tr) to understand, esp with effort

—n
4.	the act of grasping
5.	a grip or clasp, as of a hand
6.	the capacity to accomplish (esp in the phrase within one's grasp)
7.	total rule or possession
8.	understanding; comprehension

[C14: from Low German grapsen; related to Old English græppian to seize, Old Norse grāpa to steal]

'graspable

—*adj*

'grasper

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

grasp

1382, possibly metathesis of O.E. *græpsan "to touch, feel," from P.Gmc. *graipison (cf. E.Fris. grapsen "to grasp"), from root *graip (see grope). Originally "to reach for, feel around;" sense of "seize" first recorded mid-16c.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

grasp

In addition to the idiom beginning with grasp, also see get a fix on (grasp of).

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clasp clutch grab hint ahold apprehend

Idioms & Phrases

grasp

get a fix on (grasp of)

Matching Quote

"What one really wants is youth, and what one really loses is years. Life becomes at last a mere piece of acting. One goes on by habit, playing more or less clumsily that one is still alive. It is ludicrous and at times humiliating, but there is a certain style in it which youth has not. We become all, more or less, gentlemen; we are ancien régime; we learn to smile while gout racks us.... We get out of bed in the morning all broken up, without nerves, color or temper, and by noon we are joking with young women about the play. One lives in constant company with diseased hearts, livers, kidneys and lungs; one shakes hands with certain death at closer embrace every day; one sees paralysis in every feature and feels it in every muscle; all one's functions relax their action day by day; and, what is worse, one's grasp on the interests of life relaxes with the physical relaxation; and, through it all, we improve; our manners acquire refinement; our sympathies grow wider; our youthful self-consciousness disappears; very ordinary men and women are found to have charm; our appreciations have weight; we should almost get to respect ourselves if we knew of anything human to respect."

-Henry Brooks Adams

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