Grasp Meaning
/ɡɹɑːsp/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
verbTo understand.
Sentence Examples
Some people find it easier to grasp the short-term effects of smoking.
We fail to grasp the meaning of the word.
But he slipped from my grasp.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He reached out to ____ the rope and pull himself up.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Try to ____ the handle of the heavy suitcase firmly before you try to lift it off the conveyor belt.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English *grǣpsian, from Proto-West Germanic *graipisōn, from Proto-Germanic *graipisōną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to take, seize, rake”), the same ultimate source as grab. Cognate with Saterland Frisian grapsje (“to grab, grasp”), German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), German grapsen and grapschen, Old English grāpian ("to touch, feel, grasp"; > Modern English grope). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He reached out to ____ the rope and pull himself up.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Try to ____ the handle of the heavy suitcase firmly before you try to lift it off the conveyor belt.