grip

GRIP/ɡɹɪp/

Noun pluralgrips

24 meanings of grip

1
verbtransitive or intransitive
To take hold of something, especially with the hand.
He gripped the steering wheel as the car skidded.
She reached out to grip at the edge of the cliff.
Similargrasp, clutch, clasp, grab, seize
Oppositerelease
Note
The core verb is an old one: Old English grippan, close kin to the word that became gripe, with grope nearby in the family. It works with or without an object. You grip the handle, or you grip tightly on a rope. It also reaches beyond hands: glue that holds is said to grip, and so are tires that stop slipping on the pavement.
2
nouncountable or uncountable
A hold on something, or the particular way the hand holds it.
His grip on the rope loosened as his arms tired.
The coach adjusted her grip on the racket.
Similarhold, grasp, clasp, clutch
3
noununcountable
The ability to resist slipping when pressed against another object or surface.
The climbing shoes provide excellent grip on smooth rock.
Worn tires lose grip in heavy rain.
Similartraction, purchase
4
nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable
Control, power, or mastery over someone or something: a firm, tenacious hold.
The party tightened its grip on the national media.
Years of debt kept a relentless grip on the family.
Similarhold, control, grasp, stranglehold
Note
Power described as a hand that will not let go stands behind several fixed phrases. You get a grip on spiraling costs, fall into the grip of a blackmailer, or strengthen your grip on a company. The Economist in 2013 had dotcom mania holding higher education "firmly in its grip." A grip on suggests control gained or kept. In the grip of puts the speaker on the losing side.
5
nouncountable or uncountable
A handle, or the part of a handle where the hand is placed.
The pistol's rubber grip absorbed some of the recoil.
She replaced the worn grip on her golf club.
Similarhandle
6
verbtransitive
To take hold of or grasp something in a figurative sense.
The students struggled to grip the abstract concept.
She gripped the truth of the situation only slowly.
Similargrasp, understand, comprehend
7
verbtransitive
To firmly hold the attention or interest of someone.
The thriller gripped audiences until the final scene.
A well-told mystery can grip even reluctant readers.
Similarcaptivate, enthrall, engross, absorb, rivet
Oppositebore
8
verbtransitive
Of a feeling or situation, to take hold of someone and affect them powerfully.
Terror gripped the village as the floodwaters rose.
Anxiety can grip a person before a big exam.
Similarseize, overwhelm
Note
Here the feeling is the subject, not the person: panic grips you, or you are gripped by panic. Both shapes are natural, and fear is the classic agent. J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet (1898) speaks of "the stifling fear that had gripped me." The person never does the gripping in this use; they are always the one held.
9
nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable
An understanding or mental hold on a subject or idea.
After weeks of study, she had a solid grip on the material.
He felt his grip on reality slipping during the crisis.
Similargrasp, understanding, command, hold
Note
Mental grip is mostly talked about when it is slipping. Someone losing their grip is losing clear thought. Get a grip of yourself is a brisk order to stop panicking. The phrase is about composure, which sets it apart from getting a grip on a problem, where the sense of control is at work.
10
nouncountable or uncountable
A crew member responsible for handling and setting up equipment on a film or television set.
The grip rigged the dolly track before the morning shoot.
An experienced grip knows how to stabilize a camera on uneven ground.

11
nouncountable or uncountable
A device or component used for keeping a firm hold on something.
The robotic arm's grip closed around the fragile sample.
A spring-loaded grip held the cable firmly to the rail.
Similarclamp
Note
Engineering uses the word for the holding part of a piece as readily as for a whole device. On a bolt, the grip is the unthreaded portion of the shank, as opposed to the threaded end. The clamp beneath a cable car, the traction-cable device, is a specialized case of the same idea.
12
nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable
Assistance, help, or encouragement given to someone.
With a little grip from his neighbors, the farmer rebuilt the barn.
The charity offered a steady grip to families in need.
Similarhelp, assistance, support, aid, encouragement
Oppositehindrance
13
nounslangcountable or uncountable
The quantity that a single hand can hold; a handful.
He pulled a grip of fries from the bag and shared them around.
She handed me a grip of coins to feed the parking meter.
Similarhandful, fistful
Note
Slang turns the hand into a unit of measure, always followed by of, as in a grip of nails. That makes get a grip of ambiguous. Here it means fetching a handful of something. In get a grip of yourself, which belongs to the mental sense, it means calm down. The word after of tells you which one is meant.
14
nouncountable or uncountable
A visual control on a window or similar element that lets you resize or move it by dragging with a mouse or finger.
She dragged the grip at the bottom edge to make the panel taller.
Each window has a grip in the corner for resizing it with the mouse.
Similarhandle
Note
Interface design borrowed the word straight from the hand: it names the spot on a window or panel that you take hold of with the pointer. Because a finger works as well as a mouse, the term carries over to touchscreens. It is a close cousin of the handle sense, moved onto the screen.
15
nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable
Someone people admire, are inspired by, find interesting, or can rely on for help.
The mentor everyone wanted was a genuine grip, generous with both time and ideas.
He turned out to be a grip, the kind of leader who lifts everyone around him.
Similargem
16
nouncountable or uncountable
A medium-sized soft bag of leather or canvas, carried in the hand by two handles, one on each side of the opening.
Her canvas grip held everything she needed for the overnight trip.
He swung his grip up onto the luggage rack and settled into his seat.
Similarholdall, carryall, bag
17
nouncountable or uncountable
A device attached to a cable car, funicular, or mine car that clamps onto a moving traction cable to drive the car.
When the gripman pulls the lever, the grip clamps onto the cable beneath the street.
Releasing the grip lets the cable car coast gently to a stop.
18
noundialectalCaliforniaSoutherncountable or uncountable
A large amount or quantity of something.
We saved up a grip of cash before starting the renovation.
There were a grip of people lined up outside the new store.
Similarlot, load, ton, bunch, heap
Note
Southern California slang stretches the handful into plenty: a grip of cheese is simply a lot of cheese, and no hand is involved. Like the "handful" slang, it takes of, so context decides between a handful and a heap. It is regional and casual, so a lot of is the safer choice elsewhere.
19
noundialectalCaliforniaSoutherncountable or uncountable
A long stretch of time.
It's been a grip since the whole family was together in one place.
She stood in line for a grip before reaching the counter.
Similarwhile, age
Note
Time gets the same treatment in this regional slang, as in I haven't seen you in a grip. No of follows, and that is the quickest way to tell it from the "a lot" slang. Here the phrase simply means a long while. Keep it for casual talk with people who already use it.
20
nouncountable or uncountable
A small traveling bag carried by hand for one's belongings on a journey; a gripsack.
The porter offered to carry her grip to the platform.
He kept his ticket and wallet tucked inside his grip.
Similarbag, valise, holdall
Note
Railway talk kept this bag in use after general speech let it go. It is another name for a gripsack. Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1934) has a passenger who "put my grips against the communicating door." It names a smaller piece of luggage than the two-handled holdall.
21
nounarchaiccountable or uncountable
Archaic spelling of grippe.
The doctor said the grip was spreading through the whole town.
Grip! Grip!! The little touch of grip you had is no excuse for following the example of some of our "best citizens" who make every little ailment a pretext for dallying with the "demon"!!!!!
1908, A.D. Condo, The Outbursts of Everett True
Note
Influenza once went by this spelling as well as grippe, which is itself now dated. Theodore Dreiser's Jennie Gerhardt (1911) has a character "seized with a mild form of grip." Like flu, it takes the article (she has the grip) or none at all (a little touch of grip). A modern reader should take it as the illness, not a handhold.
22
noundialectalcountable
A small ditch or trench cut to carry off water or other liquid; a drainage channel.
They dug a grip across the boggy ground to draw off the standing water.
Water from the yard ran into the grip and away toward the brook.
Similarditch, trench, channel, drain
Note
Drainage brings in a separate word that only shares the spelling. It comes from Old English grēp and grēpe, "a furrow, ditch," with cognates in Middle Dutch grippe and Low German Gruppe, both meaning a ditch or drain. It has nothing to do with holding. Because the word is dialectal, ditch or drain will be understood in places where this one will not.
23
nouncountable
A channel cut through a grass verge, especially to drain water away from a highway.
The council cut a fresh grip along the verge to ease the flooding.
Surface water poured off the road and into the grip beside it.
Similarditch, channel, drain
24
verbdialectaltransitive
To cut a trench or drainage channel in land, especially in order to draw off water.
Farmers grip the wet pasture every fall to carry off the standing water.
They decided to grip the boggy corner of the field before plowing.
Similardrain, trench
Note
The ditch word has a verb as well. To grip land is to trench or drain it, and the verb shares the furrow root of the drainage-ditch noun. Like the noun, it is dialectal. It can also confuse readers who know only the everyday verb: a field that has been gripped has been trenched, not held.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of grip apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–21

The verb comes from Middle English grippen, from Old English grippan, from Proto-Germanic *gripjaną, and is related to Old English grīpan (source of English gripe) and to grope. The noun comes from Middle English grippe or gripe, blending Old English gripe ("grasp, hold," cognate with German Griff) and gripa ("handful," cognate with Swedish grepp).

Meanings 22–24

This sense comes from Middle English grip or grippe ("a ditch, drain"), from Old English grēp and grēpe ("a furrow, ditch, drain"), from Proto-Germanic *grōpiz ("a furrow, groove"). It is cognate with Middle Dutch grippe ("ditch, drain") and related to Old English grōp.