get to grips with

present singular third person gets to grips with · participle present getting to grips with · past got to grips with · UK participle past got to grips with · US participle past gotten to grips with

1. UKidiomaticTo deal (with something) decisively, or to confront (it) head on.

   Synonyms: come to grips

2. UKidiomaticTo battle (with something).

   Estonia were struggling to get to grips with the game while Ireland were showing a composure and guile that demonstrated their experience in play-off ties.

   2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport

3. UKidiomaticTo gain an understanding (of something).

   1 more example

   […] autism is the integral explanation of the phenomenon Kafka in all its expressions, and autism can explain the mystery of Kafka like no other of the interpretations proposed by literary scholars and critics in the history of Kafka research. […] The search by Kafka in his writing was for the unknown perspective in his fellow human beings which could put him at ease but he never managed to find it. He intuited this other state of mind and his writing is a testament of his search for this alien state of mind or self-consciousness which he tried to describe via parables, animal stories, aphorisms and images. His problem was that he could not get to grips with reality, more specifically his own reality, because he could not live with it.

   2017 May 16, Jerry Stuger, “Kafka and Autism. The Undisclosed Logic Behind Kafka’s Work”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, volume 47, →DOI, pages 2336–2347