grip
/ˈɡɹɪp/ verb, noun
Also a form of grippe
Forms grips gripping gripped gripe
- verb (transitive or intransitive) To take hold (of), particularly with the hand. “That suitcase is heavy, so grip the handle firmly.”
- verb (transitive) To figuratively take hold of or grasp. “We need to grip this problem, not shut our eyes and hope it goes away.”
- verb (transitive) Of an emotion or situation: to have a strong effect upon. “As the water level began to rise, I was gripped by panic.”
- verb (transitive) To firmly hold the attention of. “The movie gripped me from beginning to end.”
- noun A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand. “It's good to have a firm grip when shaking hands.”
- noun (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.”
- noun A place to grip; a handle; the portion of a handle that the hand occupies. “There are several good grips on the northern face of this rock.”
- noun 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.”
- noun An apparatus attached to a car (e.g., cable car, funicular car, mine car) for clutching a traction cable.
- noun (figurative) Control, power, or mastery over someone or something; a tenacious grasp; a holding fast. “We need to get a grip on these spiralling costs.”
- noun (figurative) Mental grasp. “He's losing his grip – he's practically senile.”
- noun 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.
- noun (dialectal) A small ditch or trench; a channel to carry off water or other liquid; a drain.
- noun A channel cut through a grass verge, especially for the purpose of draining water away from the highway.
- verb (dialectal) To trench; to drain.
Synonyms
clasp grasp handgrip clench clutch clutches hold handle bag traveling bag travelling bag suitcase traction adhesive friction bobby pin hairgrip grapple fascinate transfix spellbind
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The griffin. [Obs.]
- noun A small ditch or furrow. Ray.
- verb To trench; to drain.
- noun An energetic or tenacious grasp; a holding fast; strength in grasping.
Etymology [L. gryps, gryphus. See Griffin, Grype.]
Etymology [Cf. AS. grip furrow, hitch, D. greb.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “grip”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details