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grip

verbnounnounverbcommon in dialogue

  • //ˈɡɹɪp//
  • /[ˈɡɹʷɪp]/

To take hold (of), particularly with the hand.

verb

  1. 1

    To take hold (of), particularly with the hand.

    That suitcase is heavy, so grip the handle firmly.

    Unfortunately the glue didn't grip, and the whole thing came apart.

    After a few slips, the tires gripped the pavement.

    "Grip tightly on the rope!" — "I'm gripping! I'm gripping!"

  2. 2

    To figuratively take hold of or grasp.

    We need to grip this problem, not shut our eyes and hope it goes away.

  3. 3

    Of an emotion or situation: to have a strong effect upon.

    As the water level began to rise, I was gripped by panic.

    […] I lost something of the stifling fear that had gripped me, and could listen with more ease to what was going forward.

  4. 4

    To firmly hold the attention of.

    The movie gripped me from beginning to end.

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).

noun

  1. 1

    A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand.

    It's good to have a firm grip when shaking hands.

    The ball will move differently depending on the grip used when throwing it.

  2. 2

    Ability to resist slippage when pressed in contact with another object or surface.

    These tyres are worn out and don't have much grip.

  3. 3

    A place to grip; a handle; the portion of a handle that the hand occupies.

    Near-synonym: handgrip

    There are several good grips on the northern face of this rock.

    The grip of a sword is part of its hilt.

  4. 4

    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.

  5. 5

    A device, or a portion of one, that grasps or holds fast to something. An apparatus attached to a car (e.g., cable car, funicular car, mine car) for clutching a traction cable.

  6. 6

    figurativeControl, power, or mastery over someone or something; a tenacious grasp; a holding fast.

    We need to get a grip on these spiralling costs.

    in the grip of a blackmailer

    to strengthen one's grip on a company

    On the western sector, General Maltby tried to free the Japanese grip on Shouson Hill and Repulse Bay by sending the Punjabis to advance from Aberdeen to clear the road.

  7. 7

    figurativeMental grasp.

    He's losing his grip – he's practically senile.

    For God's sake man, stop panicking and get a grip of yourself!

  8. 8

    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.

  9. 9

    A visual component on a window etc. enabling it to be resized and/or moved by dragging with a mouse or finger.

  10. 10

    A person responsible for handling equipment on the set.

  11. 11

    slangAs much as one can hold in a hand; a handful.

    I need to get a grip of nails for my project.

  12. 12

    slangA lot of something.

    That is a grip of cheese.

  13. 13

    slangA long time.

    I haven't seen you in a grip.

  14. 14

    A small travelling-bag or gripsack.

    'I put my grips against the communicating door last night'.

  15. 15

    Variant of pistol gripA place to grip; a handle; the portion of a handle that the hand occupies. Ellipsis of pistol grip.

  16. 16

    Variant of grippearchaicArchaic spelling of grippe (“influenza”).

    She has the grip.

    Grip! Grip!! The little touch of grip you had is no excuse for following the example of some of our "best citizens" who make every little ailment a pretext for dallying with the "demon"!!!!!

noun

  1. 1

    A small ditch or trench; a channel to carry off water or other liquid; a drain.

  2. 2

    A channel cut through a grass verge, especially for the purpose of draining water away from the highway.

Etymology

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.

verb

  1. 1

    To trench; to drain.

Forms

plural
grips
past tense
gripped
past participle
gripped
present participle
gripping
third person singular
grips
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).