grasp

«grasp» in Mova's school 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 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

• 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

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

Trees and pragmatics

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