grabbing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of grab.

   He was grabbing at the railing as the train lurched forward.

   Grabbing a quick lunch, she rushed back to the office.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final b of grab, as short verbs ending in one vowel and one consonant do. It carries all of the verb's senses. With an object it seizes (grabbing the railing). With at it only reaches (grabbing at the railing). Informally it means taking or eating something quickly (grabbing a sandwich). The same spelling also serves as the noun for a snatching.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of seizing or snatching something, often suddenly and with the hand.

   A frantic grabbing of supplies followed the storm warning.

   The referee penalized the grabbing of an opponent's jersey near the goal.

   Similarsnatching, seizing, grasping, pulling

   Note

   As a noun it counts separate acts, so it takes a plural. It readily joins with whatever is grabbed, the object first and a hyphen between: Jeff Metzger's Cubicle Cowboy (2005) describes a "gauntlet of ass-grabbings and crotch-grabbings." In compounds like these the word usually names an unwanted, intrusive touch rather than a simple seizing of objects.

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