grip

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See also: Grip

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, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:
      […] 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.
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. (figurative) Assistance; help or encouragement. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
    He gave me a grip.
  4. (figurative) A helpful, interesting, admirable, or inspiring person.
    You're a real grip.
  5. (figurative) Control, power or mastery over someone or something; 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.
    • 2016 June 22, Max Bearak, “The world’s longest-serving president just appointed his son as VP”, in The Washington Post‎[2]:
      The current president toppled his uncle in a violent coup in 1979, before sentencing him to death by firing squad. Since then, he has consolidated his grip over the country's industries and is accused of diverting tax money into his personal accounts.
    • 2022 November 21, Barney Ronay, “Iran’s brave and powerful gesture is a small wonder from a World Cup of woe”, in The Guardian‎[3]:
      Instead England produced something that felt a little transgressive in this most controlled of stages, tightening their grip in a bruising first half, before freewheeling downhill in the second with their feet up on the handlebars.
    in the grip of a blackmailer
    to strengthen one's grip on a company
  6. (slang) As much as one can hold in a hand; a handful.
    I need to get a grip of nails for my project.
  7. (computing, graphical user interface) A visual component on a window etc. enabling it to be resized and/or moved.
  8. (film production) A person responsible for handling equipment on the set.
    Hyponym: key grip
    Coordinate terms: gaffer, gofer
  9. A channel cut through a grass verge (especially for the purpose of draining water away from the highway).
  10. (chiefly Southern California slang) A lot of something.
    That is a grip of cheese.
  11. (chiefly Southern California slang) A long time.
    I haven't seen you in a grip.
  12. Archaic spelling of grippe (“influenza”).
    She has the grip.
    • 1911, Theodore Dreiser, chapter XXXII, in Jennie Gerhardt‎[4]:
      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.
  13. (archaic except rail transport) 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'.
  14. An apparatus attached to a car for clutching a traction cable.
  15. A device for grasping or holding fast to something.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
grip — see grasp
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also[edit]

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]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. (dialectal) To trench; to drain.

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]

Noun[edit]

grip

  1. Alternative form of gripe (“griffin”)

Etymology 2[edit]

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
  2. imperative of gripa

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

Descendants[edit]

  • → Laz: გრიფი (gripi)

Yola[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English gripe (“grip”, rarely "sharp pain"), from Old English gripe, from Proto-West Germanic *gripi, from Proto-Germanic *gripiz.[1]

Noun[edit]

grip (plural gripès)

  1. A twinge; a sharp pain.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Raymond Hickey (1988), “A lost Middle English dialect”, in Jacek Fisiak, editor, Historical Dialectology: Regional and Social (Trends in linguistics: Studies and monographs; 37), De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 262
  2. ^ 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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