The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present grasps, present participle grasping, simple past and past participle grasped
To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand. examples
To understand. examples
To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance. examples
plural grasps
(sometimes figurative) Grip. quotations examples
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, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915
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, page 44
Understanding. quotations examples
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. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall
That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability. examples