grasp
pronunciation
How to pronounce grasp in British English:
UK [ɡrɑːsp]
How to pronounce grasp in American English:
US [ɡræsp]
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- Noun:
- understanding of the nature or meaning or quality or magnitude of something
- the limit of capability
- a firm controlling influence
- the act of grasping
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- Verb:
- hold firmly
- get the meaning of something
Word Origin
- grasp (v.)
- mid-14c., "to reach, grope, feel around," possibly a metathesis of grapsen, from Old English *græpsan "to touch, feel," from Proto-Germanic *grap-, *grab- (cognates: East Frisian grapsen "to grasp," Middle Dutch grapen "to seize, grasp," Old English grapian "to touch, feel, grope"), from PIE root *ghrebh- (1) "to seize, reach" (see grab (v.)). With verb-formative -s- as in cleanse. Sense of "seize" first recorded mid-16c. Transitive use by 17c. Figurative use from c. 1600; of intellectual matters from 1680s. Related: Grasped; grasping.
- grasp (n.)
- 1560s, "a handle," from grasp (v.). As "act of grasping" from c. 1600; also "power of grasping." Meaning "power of intellect" is from 1680s. Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for? [Browning, "Andrea del Sarto"]
Synonym
Example
- 1. " They are looking for some way to grasp their futures , " he says . "
- 2. Your grasp of economic terminology is quite secure .
- 3. If he cares about global trade , mr bush should grasp it .
- 4. Yet their despair at us politics is easy to grasp .
- 5. People with little economics training intuitively grasp this point .