1 [VN] to take a firm hold of sb/sth:
He grasped my hand and shook it warmly. * Kay grasped him by the wrist.
2 to understand sth completely:
[VN] They failed to grasp the importance of his words. * [Vwh-] She was unable to grasp how to do it. * [Vthat] It took him some time to grasp that he was now a public figure.
3 [VN] ~ a chance / an opportunity to take an opportunity without hesitating and use it:
I grasped the opportunity to work abroad.
IDIOMS
grasp the nettle (BrE) to deal with a difficult situation firmly and without hesitating:
The government now has the opportunity to grasp the nettle of prison reform.
moreatSTRAW
PHRASALVERBS
grasp at sth
1 to try to take hold of sth in your hands:
She grasped at his coat as he rushed past her.
2 to try to take an opportunity
noun [usuallysing.]
1 a firm hold of sb/sth or control over sb/sth:
I grabbed him, but he slipped from my grasp. * She felt a firm grasp on her arm. * Don't let the situation escape from your grasp. * As soon as he relaxed his grasp on the rope, it was pulled out of his hands. * As the drugs took hold, her grasp of reality began to slip slowly away.
2 a person's understanding of a subject or of difficult facts:
He has a good grasp of German grammar. * These complex formulae are beyond the grasp of the average pupil.
3 the ability to get or achieve sth:
Success was within her grasp.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for grasp is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is grasp a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, grasp is tagged as verb.
Does grasp appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — grasp appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
