Word.ws English Dictionary

grasped at straws

grasped at straws is the simple past and past participle 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.

Questions about grasped at straws

What is grasped at straws the simple past and past participle of?
Grasped at straws is the simple past and past participle of grasp at straws.

Words near grasped at straws in the dictionary

  1. grasp the nettle
  2. graspability
  3. graspable
  4. graspableness
  5. grasped
  6. grasped at straws
  7. grasped the nettle
  8. grasper
  9. graspers
  10. graspest
  11. graspeth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grasped at straws (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: “grasped at straws.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grasped_at_straws. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.