grasp

«grasp» in Mova's judaism dictionary: To take and hold something tightly: She grasped the rope — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (grasp, grasps, grasped, grasping); noun (a grasp — usually singular)

meaning for a pupil

1) (verb) To take and hold something tightly: She grasped the rope. tree →

2) (verb) To understand something, especially something hard: He quickly grasped the idea. tree →

3) (noun) A firm hold: Keep a tight grasp on the rail. tree →

4) (noun) Understanding: a good grasp of maths. tree →

5) (noun) Reach; how close something is to being got: Victory was within our grasp. tree →

sense in the lessons

In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: In the Psalms it means the hold or power of a wicked person, from which the psalmist prays God to rescue him. Interpretation: The tradition reads the psalm as trust that God can free the weak from the power of the cruel. In the primary lessons: In school a teacher checks pupils have a «good grasp» of fractions; in safety lessons you grasp the handrail on stairs; in stories something is «within grasp» or «out of grasp». Phrases: «grasp the idea», «a good grasp of», «within your grasp», «grasp at straws».

examples

• A separate consideration of the several parts should follow this general grasp of the subject, else much confusion may result. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• O my God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless man. (Writings PSA.71.4, JPS 1917) tree →
• Grasp the handrail as you go down the stairs. tree →
• The baby grasped my finger. tree →
• It took me a while to grasp long division. tree →
• She has a good grasp of French. tree →
• The ball slipped from his grasp. tree →
• Winning the cup was within our grasp. tree →
• "Stay, foolish youth," said Medea, grasping his arm. tree →

note

Regular verb. Grasp (understand) is a little formal; casual words are «get» or «get the hang of». «Grasping» as an adjective means greedy.

In the corpora

• O my God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless man.
• Try and grasp the fact that on this occasion we're not arguing with you; we're just telling you.»

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «grasp» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.