Word.ws English Dictionary

come to grips

come to grips verb: to confront each other decisively.

Verb

come to grips (third-person singular simple present comes to grips, present participle coming to grips, simple past came to grips, past participle come to grips)

  1. (intransitive) To confront each other decisively.
    • The armies finally came to grips at Stalingrad.
    Synonyms:
    get to grips
  2. (intransitive) To attempt to face or resolve an internal contradiction or difficulty.
    • It was not until five years after graduation that she finally came to grips and began a career.
    • The country is coming to grips and accepting its responsibilities.

Synonyms of come to grips

  • get to grips

Forms of come to grips

third-person singular presentcomes to grips
present participlecoming to grips
pastcame to grips
past participlecome to grips

Words formed from come to grips

Questions about come to grips

What does come to grips mean?
Come to grips means to confront each other decisively.
What part of speech is come to grips?
Come to grips is a verb.
What is the past tense of come to grips?
The past tense of come to grips is came to grips.

Words near come to grips in the dictionary

  1. come to bed
  2. come to blows
  3. come to find out
  4. come to fruition
  5. come to grief
  6. come to grips
  7. come to grips with
  8. come to hand
  9. come to Jesus
  10. come to life
  11. come to light

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come to grips (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “come to grips.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/come_to_grips. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.