grip

/ˈɡɹɪp/

grip verb: to take hold (of), particularly with the hand. Also the ellipsis of pistol grip.

Verb (1)

grip (third-person singular simple present grips, present participle gripping, simple past and past participle gripped)

(intransitive, transitive) To take hold (of), particularly with the hand.
- That suitcase is heavy, so grip the handle firmly.
- Unfortunately the glue didn't grip, and the whole thing came apart.
Synonyms:

clasp
(transitive) To figuratively take hold of or grasp.
- We need to grip this problem, not shut our eyes and hope it goes away.
(transitive) Of an emotion or situation: to have a strong effect upon.
- As the water level began to rise, I was gripped by panic.
- […] I lost something of the stifling fear that had gripped me, and could listen with more ease to what was going forward.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
(transitive) To firmly hold the attention of.
- The movie gripped me from beginning to end.

Noun (1)

grip (countable and uncountable, plural grips)

A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand.
- It's good to have a firm grip when shaking hands.
- The ball will move differently depending on the grip used when throwing it.
(uncountable) Ability to resist slippage when pressed in contact with another object or surface.
- These tyres are worn out and don't have much grip.
A place to grip; a handle; the portion of a handle that the hand occupies.
- Near-synonym: handgrip
- There are several good grips on the northern face of this rock.
Synonyms:

handgrip
A device, or a portion of one, that grasps or holds fast to something.
- The unthreaded portion of the bolt's shank is called the grip.
1. An apparatus attached to a car (e.g., cable car, funicular car, mine car) for clutching a traction cable.
(figuratively) Control, power, or mastery over someone or something; a tenacious grasp; a holding fast.
- We need to get a grip on these spiralling costs.
- in the grip of a blackmailer
(figuratively) Mental grasp.
- He's losing his grip – he's practically senile.
- For God's sake man, stop panicking and get a grip of yourself!
A medium-sized bag or holdall for one's belongings, made of soft leather, canvas etc., and carried in the hand by two handles, one either side of the opening.
A visual component on a window etc. enabling it to be resized and/or moved by dragging with a mouse or finger.
(film or television production) A person responsible for handling equipment on the set.
(slang) As much as one can hold in a hand; a handful.
- I need to get a grip of nails for my project.
(California, Southern, slang) A lot of something.
- That is a grip of cheese.
(California, Southern, slang) A long time.
- I haven't seen you in a grip.
(archaic except rail transport) A small travelling-bag or gripsack.
- 'I put my grips against the communicating door last night'.1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 35

Noun (2)

grip (plural grips)

(dialectal) A small ditch or trench; a channel to carry off water or other liquid; a drain.
A channel cut through a grass verge, especially for the purpose of draining water away from the highway.

Verb (2)

grip (third-person singular simple present grips, present participle gripping, simple past and past participle gripped)

(dialectal) To trench; to drain.

Also used as

grip is also the ellipsis of pistol grip.

grip is also the archaic spelling of grippe.

grip meaning in Tamil, Tagalog, Arabic and Persian

grip in Tamil

to take hold: பிடி piṭi
A handle or other place to grip: கைப்பிடி kaippiṭi
A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand: கைப்பிடி kaippiṭi
Assistance, encouragement: ஊக்கம் ūkkam

grip in Tagalog

to take hold: sumunggab ng mahigpit, pumisil ng mahigpit, humawak ng mahigpit

grip in Arabic

A handle or other place to grip: مَقْبِض maqbiḍ

grip in Persian

to take hold: گرفتن gereftan

More languagesFewer languages

grip in Vietnamese: nắm chặt, giữ chặt, nắm

Examples of grip in a sentence

After a few slips, the tires gripped the pavement.
"Grip tightly on the rope!" — "I'm gripping! I'm gripping!"
The grip of a sword is part of its hilt.
to strengthen one's grip on a company
He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
On the western sector, General Maltby tried to free the Japanese grip on Shouson Hill and Repulse Bay by sending the Punjabis to advance from Aberdeen to clear the road.1978, G. B. Endacott, “The Assault on the Island: the First Three Days”, in Hong Kong Eclipse, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page...

All 40 example sentences with grip

Synonyms of grip

Forms of grip

Verb
third-person singular present	grips
present participle	gripping
past participle	gripped
past	gripped
Noun
plural	grips
alternative form	gripe

Past tense of grip: gripped

Plural of grip: grips

Origin of grip

Verb from Middle English grippen, from Old English grippan, from a Proto-Germanic *gripjaną (compare Old High German gripfen); compare the related Old English grīpan, whence English gripe. See also grope, and the related Proto-Germanic *grīpaną. Noun from Middle English grippe, gripe, an amalgam of Old English gripe (“grasp, hold”) (cognate with German Griff) and Old English gripa (“handful”) (cognate with Swedish grepp).

From Middle English grip, grippe, gryppe (“a ditch, drain”), from Old English grēp (“a furrow, burrow”) and grēpe (“a furrow, ditch, drain”), from Proto-Germanic *grōpiz (“a furrow, groove”). Cognate with Middle Dutch grippe, gruppe (“ditch, drain”), greppe, German Low German Gruppe (“ditch, drain”). Related also to Old English grōp (“a ditch, drain”). More at groop.

Phrases with grip

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with grip

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about grip

What does grip mean?: Grip means to take hold (of), particularly with the hand.
What is grip in Tamil?: Grip in Tamil is பிடி (piṭi), கைப்பிடி (kaippiṭi), ஊக்கம் (ūkkam). See Grip meaning in Tamil.
How do you use grip in a sentence?: After a few slips, the tires gripped the pavement.
What part of speech is grip?: Grip can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce grip?: Grip is pronounced /ˈɡɹɪp/.
What is the past tense of grip?: The past tense of grip is gripped.

Words near grip in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: grip (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-grip.ogg.

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