graple

Verb (1)

grapple (third-person singular simple present grapples, present participle grappling, simple past and past participle grappled)

1. (transitive) To seize something and hold it firmly.
2. (intransitive) To wrestle or tussle.
3. (figuratively) To ponder and intensely evaluate a problem; to struggle to deal with.
   • to grapple with one's conscience

Verb (2)

grapple (third-person singular simple present grapples, present participle grappling, simple past and past participle grappled)

1. (transitive) To fasten, as with a grapple; (by extension) to fix; to join indissolubly.
   • The gallies were grapled to the Centurion.1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
2. (intransitive, transitive) To climb (whether by means of a grapple and rope, or by hand, etc).
   • Sam quickly geared up and placed the first hook. “I am coming as well,” Alicia announced. […] Sam planted the anchor and then grappled down as Alicia struggled to move more than a foot or shift down.2012, Allen G. Davison, The Blessed, →ISBN, page 149
3. (intransitive) To use a grapple (for example to attempt to find, hook, and raise a net or cable).
   • The following days I spent patrolling the river and grappling for nets. On Wednesday , 18th July , left Gananoque at 7 a.m.; patrolled down to Rockport, […]1912, Sessional Papers - Legislature of the Province of Ontario, page 126

See all 12 meanings of grapple