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grasp

verb
/ɡɹɑːsp/UK/ɡɹasp//ɡɹæsp/US

Etymology

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”).

  1. inherited from *graipisōną✻
  2. inherited from *graipisōn✻
  3. inherited from *grǣpsian✻
  4. inherited from graspen

Definitions

  1. To grip

    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?

  2. To understand.

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

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

  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. Grip.

      • A vagrant gust of wind snatched the note from my grasp.
      • in the tyrant's grasp
      • What the anvil? what dread grasp. Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

    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.

    3. That which is accessible

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

      • The goal is within my grasp.

    4. Acronym of General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns (or Principles).

    5. Acronym of Gamepedia Rapid Anti-Spam Patrol.

The neighborhood

Derived

a drowning man will grasp at a straw, a drowning man will grasp at straws, begrasp, engrasp, foregrasp, graspability, graspable, grasp at a straw, grasp at straws, grasper, grasp for straws, grasp the nettle, ungrasp, misgrasp, regrasp, beyond someone's grasp, graspful, graspless, handgrasp, light grasp, tripod grasp

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at grasp. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01grasp02jump03momentum04movement05painting06illustration07obscurity08understand09comprehend

A definitional loop anchored at grasp. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at grasp

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA