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GRASPING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles)
Synonyms:
grasping; prehension; seizing; taking hold
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("grasping" is a kind of...):
control (the activity of managing or exerting control over something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "grasping"):
clasp; clench; clutch; clutches; grasp; grip; hold (the act of grasping)
Derivation:
grasp (hold firmly)
grasping (immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Understanding with difficulty
Example:
the lecture was beyond his most strenuous graspings
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("grasping" is a kind of...):
apprehension; discernment; savvy; understanding (the cognitive condition of someone who understands)
Derivation:
grasp (get the meaning of something)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth
Example:
prehensile employers stingy with raises for their employees
Synonyms:
avaricious; covetous; grabby; grasping; greedy; prehensile
Classified under:
Similar:
acquisitive (eager to acquire and possess things especially material possessions or ideas)
Derivation:
grasping (the act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles))
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb grasp
Context examples:
Beside this chair, and still grasping one of its legs, lay the unfortunate tenant of the house.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You can feel Uranus thumping around the heavens, and it will be a joy to see that at long last you are closer to grasping a dream.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
“You have really got it!” he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And did you ever hear that my father was an avaricious, grasping man?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was horrible to see the fierce brutes with foaming mouths and glaring eyes, rushing and grasping, but forever missing their elusive enemies, while arrow after arrow buried itself in their hides.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Sometimes I entreated my attendants to assist me in the destruction of the fiend by whom I was tormented; and at others I felt the fingers of the monster already grasping my neck, and screamed aloud with agony and terror.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows I had matter enough for thought in the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my own most perilous position, and above all, in the remarkable game that I saw Silver now engaged upon—keeping the mutineers together with one hand and grasping with the other after every means, possible and impossible, to make his peace and save his miserable life.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He grew excited as he spoke, and walked about the room pulling his great white moustache and grasping anything on which he laid his hands as though he would crush it by main strength.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Grasping these rushes firmly near the root, he pulled up what resembled a young onion-sprout no larger than a shingle-nail.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
I grow timid when I am face to face with my human frailty, which ever prevents me from grasping all the factors in any problem—human, vital problems, you know.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
