grasp
UK/ɡɹɑːsp/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ɡɹasp/
grasp verb: to grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
Verb
grasp (third-person singular simple present grasps, present participle grasping, simple past and past participle grasped)
- To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
- How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep—while I weep! / O God! can I not grasp / Them with a tighter clasp?1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850...
- Synonyms:
- clasp
- To understand.
- I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.
- Synonyms:
- comprehend, fathom
- To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.
- Synonyms:
- jump at the chance, jump on
Noun
grasp (plural grasps)
- Grip.
- A vagrant gust of wind snatched the note from my grasp.
- in the tyrant's grasp
- Understanding.
- There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.1859, George Meredith, chapter 13, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
- That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.
- The goal is within my grasp.
Proper noun capitalized: GRASP
GRASP
- Acronym of General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns (or Principles).
- Acronym of Gamepedia Rapid Anti-Spam Patrol.
grasp meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit
grasp in Hindi
- grip
- पकड़ pakaṛ
grasp in Tamil
- to understand
- கிரகி kiraki
grasp in Telugu
- to grip
- పట్టుకొను paṭṭukonu
- to understand
- గ్రహించు grahiñcu, ఆకళింపు చేసుకొను ākaḷimpu cēsukonu
grasp in Sanskrit
- to grip
- घिण्णते ghiṇṇate
More languagesFewer languages
- grasp in Arabic
- قَبْضَة qabḍa
Examples of grasp in a sentence
- Just when victory seemed secure, they let it slip from their grasp.
- I caught the thief, but he slipped my grasp and ran away.
- He wrested the remote control from my grasp and changed the channel.
Synonyms of grasp
19 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of grasp
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | grasps |
| present participle | grasping |
| past participle | grasped |
| past | grasped |
| alternative form | graps |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | graspest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | graspedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | graspeth |
| Noun | |
| plural | grasps |
Origin of grasp
From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English *grǣpsian, from Proto-West Germanic *graipisōn, from Proto-Germanic *graipisōną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to take, seize, rake”), the same ultimate source as grab. Cognate with Saterland Frisian grapsje (“to grab, grasp”), German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), German grapsen and grapschen, Old English grāpian ("to touch, feel, grasp"; > Modern English grope). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).
Words formed from grasp
Phrases with grasp
Words that rhyme with grasp
Questions about grasp
- What does grasp mean?
- Grasp means to grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
- What is grasp in Hindi?
- Grasp in Hindi is पकड़ (pakaṛ). See Grasp meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is grasp?
- Grasp can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce grasp?
- Grasp is pronounced /ɡɹɑːsp/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of grasp?
- The past tense of grasp is grasped.
Words near grasp in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: grasp (page history and authors); GRASP (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-grasp.ogg.
Cite this entry: “grasp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grasp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.