Word.ws English Dictionary

grip oneself with both hands

grip oneself with both hands phrase: to ready oneself for action or bravery; to gird up one's loins.

Phrase

grip oneself with both hands

  1. (obsolete) To ready oneself for action or bravery; to gird up one's loins.
    • But, as the saying goes, I gripped myself with both hands. It grew upon my mind, once I could face the facts, that, terrible as our position was, there was as yet no justification for absolute despair.1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 224
    • In every-day life he is inclined somewhat on the excitable side, but as an alderman he apparently grips himself with both hands, and settles down for the welfare of the town as a whole.1916 February 11, The Northern Herald, Cairns, page 19

Questions about grip oneself with both hands

What does grip oneself with both hands mean?
Grip oneself with both hands means to ready oneself for action or bravery; to gird up one's loins.
What part of speech is grip oneself with both hands?
Grip oneself with both hands is a phrase.

Words near grip oneself with both hands in the dictionary

  1. grip cars
  2. grip case
  3. grip cases
  4. grip grain
  5. grip off
  6. grip oneself with both hands
  7. grip panel
  8. grip tape
  9. grip tapes
  10. grip up
  11. grip wax

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grip oneself with both hands (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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