handgrip

Noun

handgrip (plural handgrips)

1. A handle; the portion of a handle that the hand occupies.
   • Near-synonym: grip
   • The machine has some handgrips and steps built into its frame.

   Synonyms:

   grip

2. A covering (often rubber or foam) on a handle, designed to allow the user a more comfortable or more secure hold on the handle.
   • He wrapped some fabric tape around the rubber handgrips to make them less slippery.
   • Each cane consists of three parts: (1) the handle (which may or may not be covered by a rubber handgrip), (2) the shaft, and (3) the base (which is usually ...1994, Verolyn Bolander, Karen Creason Sorensen, Joan Luckmann, Sorensen and Luckmann's basic nursing: a psychophysiologic approach, →ISBN, page 837
3. A handshake; a way of gripping hands with another person.
   • They use a certain handgrip as a wordless shibboleth.
   • There are also "secret" signs and handgrips, which initiates are never supposed to reveal lest they suffer a fate worse than death.1988 March 11, Cecil Adams, “The Straight Dope”, in Chicago Reader
4. The ability to grip something with a hand.
   • handgrip strength
   • Scientists have found that handgrip strength is a surprisingly effective proxy measure for overall musculoskeletal health.
5. A grasp or grip.
   • “I heard that this youngster had the strength of thirty men in his handgrip!”1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 25
   • The captain of evil discovered himself
     in a handgrip harder than anything
     he had encountered in any man
     on the face of the earth.1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 25