grasp

present singular third person grasps · participle present grasping · participle past grasped · past grasped · first person past singular grasped · archaic present second person singular graspest · past second person singular grasped · archaic past second person singular graspedst · present singular third person grasps · archaic present singular third person graspeth · past singular third person grasped · past plural grasped · past subjunctive grasped · participle present grasping · participle past grasped · alternative graps

1. To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.

   How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep—while I weep! / O God! can I not grasp / Them with a tighter clasp?

   1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 40

   Synonyms: clasp

2. To understand.

   I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.

   Synonyms: comprehend, fathom

3. To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.

   Synonyms: jump at the chance, jump on

plural grasps · alternative graps

1. figurativelysometimesGrip.

   in the tyrant's grasp

   4 more examples

   A vagrant gust of wind snatched the note from my grasp.

   What the anvil? what dread grasp. Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

   1826, William Blake, “The Tyger”, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience

   Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

   1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1

   If a mirror does slip from your grasp, do not attempt to catch it. Just get out of the way.

   1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 44

2. Understanding.

   There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.

   1859, George Meredith, chapter 13, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC

3. That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.

   The goal is within my grasp.

1. abbreviationacronymobject-oriented designcomputingAcronym of General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns (or Principles).
2. abbreviationacronymgroup; team; group; teamAcronym of Gamepedia Rapid Anti-Spam Patrol.