GRASP • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Grasp

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/græsp/ Listen

noun

Grasp n.

A gripe or seizure of the hand; a seizure by embrace, or infolding in the arms. "The grasps of love."

Reach of the arms; hence, the power of seizing and holding; as, it was beyond his grasp.

Forcible possession; hold. "The whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp."

Wide-reaching power of intellect to comprehend subjects and hold them under survey. "The foremost minds of the next... era were not, in power of grasp, equal to their predecessors."

The handle of a sword or of an oar.

verb

Grasp v. t. (past & past part. grasper; pres. part. qraspine)

To seize and hold by clasping or embracing with the fingers or arms; to catch to take possession of. "Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff."

To lay hold of with the mind; to become thoroughly acquainted or conversant with; to comprehend.

Grasp v. i. To effect a grasp; to make the motion of grasping; to clutch; to struggle; to strive. "As one that grasped And tugged for life and was by strength subdued."

To grasp at, to catch at; to try to seize; as, Alexander grasped at universal empire,

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Etymology of 'Grasp'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Grasp" Quotes from Famous Books

... boy, everything. I know more about putting up tents than you do about science, or whatever you teach. Now, Hiram, my boy, you cut me some stakes about two feet long—stout ones. Here, professor, throw off that coat and nglig manner, and grasp this spade. I want ...

— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr

... really sees she does not see, and that what is unreal is reality: to make her, to the amusement of the spectators, continually stretch out her hand to snatch the visionary good that for ever eludes her grasp, or changes, on near approach, to ...

— Helen • Maria Edgeworth

... thrust mightily against the hammer's handle as it fell. Sideways it glanced from the old man's grasp, and the black stone, striking on the altar's edge, split in twain. A shout of awe and joy rolled along the living circle. The branches of the oak shivered. The flames leaped higher. As the shout died away the people saw the lady Irma, with her arms clasped round ...

— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)

... that Kelley's music flags in no wise behind the divine progress of the words. The lute idea dictates an arpeggiated accompaniment, whose harmonic beauty and courage is beyond description and beyond the grasp of the mind at the first hearing. The bravery of the climax follows the weird and opiate harmonies of the middle part with tremendous effect. The song is, in my fervent belief, a masterwork of absolute genius, one of the very greatest lyrics ...

— Contemporary American Composers • Rupert Hughes

... the terminology of mathematics. Almost all the standard terms are Greek or Latin translations from the Greek, and, although the mathematician may be taught their meaning without knowing Greek, he will certainly grasp their significance better if he knows them as they arise and as part of the living language of the men who invented them. Take the word isosceles; a schoolboy can be shown what an isosceles triangle is, but, if he knows nothing of the derivation, he will wonder why such an apparently ...

— The Legacy of Greece • Various

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