grip

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: grĭp, IPA(key): /ɡɹɪp/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪp

Etymology 1[edit]

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.

Verb[edit]

grip (third-person singular simple present grips, present participle gripping, simple past and past participle gripped)

  1. (transitive) To take hold of, particularly with the hand.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎[1]:
      When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.
    That suitcase is heavy, so grip the handle firmly.
    The glue will begin to grip within five minutes.
    After a few slips, the tires gripped the pavement.
  2. (transitive) Of an emotion or situation: to have a strong effect upon.
    • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4
      […] I lost something of the stifling fear that had gripped me, and could listen with more ease to what was going forward.
  3. (transitive) To firmly hold the attention of.
    The movie gripped me from beginning to end.
  4. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (transitive) To help or assist, particularly in an emotional sense.
    He grips me.
  5. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (intransitive) To do something with another that makes you happy/gives you relief.
    Let’s grip (get a coffee, hang, take a break, see a movie, etc.)
  6. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) To trench; to drain.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to grip — see grasp

Etymology 2[edit]

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[edit]

grip (countable and uncountable, plural grips)

  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. A handle or other place to grip.
    the grip of a sword
    There are several good grips on the northern face of this rock.
  3. (computing, graphical user interface) A visual component on a window etc. enabling it to be resized and/or moved.
  4. (film production) A person responsible for handling equipment on the set.
    Hyponym: key grip
    Coordinate terms: gaffer, gofer
  5. A channel cut through a grass verge (especially for the purpose of draining water away from the highway).
  6. (chiefly Southern California slang) A lot of something.
    That is a grip of cheese.
  7. (chiefly Southern California slang) A long time.
    I haven't seen you in a grip.
  8. Archaic spelling of grippe: Influenza, flu.
    She has the grip.
    • 1911, Theodore Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt, Chapter XXXII:
      It so happened that, during a stretch of inclement weather in the fall, Lester was seized with a mild form of grip. When he felt the first symptoms he thought that his indisposition would be a matter of short duration, and tried to overcome it by taking a hot bath and a liberal dose of quinine. But the infection was stronger than he counted on; by morning he was flat on his back, with a severe fever and a splitting headache.
  9. (archaic) A small travelling-bag or gripsack.
    • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 35:
      'I put my grips against the communicating door last night'.
  10. An apparatus attached to a car for clutching a traction cable.
  11. Assistance; help or encouragement. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
    He gave me a grip.
  12. A helpful, interesting, admirable, or inspiring person.
    You're a real grip.
  13. (slang) As much as one can hold in a hand; a handful.
    I need to get a grip of nails for my project.
  14. (figuratively) A tenacious grasp; a holding fast.
    • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.
    in the grip of a blackmailer
  15. A device for grasping or holding fast to something.
See also[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
grip — see grasp
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 3[edit]

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.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip (plural grips)

  1. (dialectal) A small ditch or trench; a channel to carry off water or other liquid; a drain.
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

From Middle English gripe, from Old French gripe, from Latin grypus, gryphus.

Noun[edit]

grip (plural grips)

  1. (obsolete) The griffin.

Anagrams[edit]

Albanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Probably a modern loanword, from German Grippe.

Noun[edit]

grip m

  1. flu, influenza

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French grippe, from Frankish *grīpan (“to seize”), from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip f (plural grips)

  1. flu (influenza)

Further reading[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English grip.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip m (plural grippen, diminutive gripje n)

  1. hold (to ensure control)

Related terms[edit]

Haitian Creole[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French grippe (“influenza”).

Noun[edit]

grip

  1. influenza, flu

Icelandic[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip

  1. inflection of gripur:
    1. indefinite accusative singular
    2. indefinite dative singular

Ladino[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French grippe (“influenza”).

Noun[edit]

grip f (Latin spelling)

  1. (medicine) influenza, flu

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old French gripe.

Noun[edit]

grip

  1. Alternative form of gripe (“griffin”)

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English grēp.

Noun[edit]

grip

  1. Alternative form of grippe

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Verb[edit]

grip

  1. imperative of gripe

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Verb[edit]

grip

  1. present tense of gripa and gripe
  2. imperative of gripa and gripe

Romansch[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip m (plural grips)

  1. rock

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

grȉp m (Cyrillic spelling гри̏п)

  1. (Serbia) flu, influenza

Swedish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip c

  1. griffin

Declension[edit]

Declension of grip 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative grip gripen gripar griparna
Genitive grips gripens gripars griparnas

Verb[edit]

grip

  1. imperative of gripa.

Turkish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French grippe.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

grip (definite accusative gripi, plural gripler)

  1. (pathology) flu, influenza, grippe

Yola[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

grip (plural gripès)

  1. stitch

References[edit]

  • Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 43
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