Word.ws English Dictionary

grasp at a straw

grasp at a straw is the alternative form of grasp at straws.

Meaning of grasp at straws

Verb

grasp at straws (third-person singular simple present grasps at straws, present participle grasping at straws, simple past and past participle grasped at straws)

  1. (idiomatic) To guess randomly or pursue any apparent option, due to a lack of clear choices or information.
    • I've never met his mother, so I'm grasping at straws for an appropriate gift for her.
  2. (idiomatic) To obtain any form of help, even if it is insignificant.

Forms of grasp at a straw

third-person singular presentgrasps at a straw
present participlegrasping at a straw
past participlegrasped at a straw
pastgrasped at a straw

Questions about grasp at a straw

What is grasp at a straw the alternative form of?
Grasp at a straw is the alternative form of grasp at straws.

Words near grasp at a straw in the dictionary

  1. Grasmick
  2. Grasmicks
  3. Grasonville
  4. grasp
  5. grasp all, lose all
  6. grasp at a straw
  7. grasp at straws
  8. grasp for straws
  9. grasp the nettle
  10. graspability
  11. graspable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grasp at a straw (page history and authors); grasp at straws (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.

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Cite this entry: “grasp at a straw.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grasp_at_a_straw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.