grasping

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.

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.

10.

mental hold or capacity; power to understand.

11.

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

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

un·grasped, adjective

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. 2013.
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Link To grasping

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Grasping is always a great word to know.

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an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

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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

grasping (ˈɡrɑːspɪŋ)

—*adj*
	greedy; avaricious; rapacious

'graspingly

—*adv*

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

Example sentences

Not only does he suckle the ball, he sort of kneads it with his paws, seemingly

grasping for something.

Political agencies seem to be desperately grasping at straws.

The difficulty of grasping the concept is due to its being beyond the whole

realm of theory.

Intellectually grasping the ubiquity of bovine by-products is also a matter of

coming to grips with geographic ubiquity.

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Matching Quote

"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and, like the grave, cries, "Give, give!" The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances."

-Abigail Adams