gripped

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of grip.

   He gripped the wheel as the car skidded on the icy road.

   Fear gripped the crowd the moment the lights went out.

   Note

   One spelling serves two jobs. As the simple past it stands alone (he gripped the wheel). As the past participle it follows have or forms a passive (was gripped by fear). Because grip so often takes an emotion or situation as its subject, that passive slides easily into the "mesmerized" adjective. The dialectal grip, meaning to trench or drain, would share this same past form.

2. 2
   adjective

   Completely absorbed or fascinated, unable to pull your attention away.

   Audiences were gripped by the documentary's final act.

   She sat gripped through the whole performance, barely blinking.

   Similarabsorbed, captivated, enthralled, engrossed, spellbound

   Oppositebored

   Note

   A participle that has crossed over into a true adjective, and the proof is that it grades: a reader can be more gripped by the second chapter than the first, or the most gripped person in the audience. The past tense of grip allows no such comparison. Keep it apart from the climber's word for fear, where what grips you is anxiety, not fascination.

3. 3
   adjective

   Fitted with a grip or grips for secure holding.

   The climbing axe is gripped along its full length for a firm hold.

   Well-gripped handles make the kitchen knives safer to use.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Too frightened to continue a climb; paralyzed by fear partway up a route.

   Two moves from the top, I was completely gripped and froze on the holds.

   Climbers often get gripped when the good holds run out above a long fall.

   Similarpetrified, terrified

   Note

   Climbers use this slang word for the moment fear stops progress on a route: the next move simply will not come. It usually follows a verb rather than standing before a noun (get gripped, be completely gripped). It belongs to the talk of the crag and the climbing wall. Elsewhere, listeners would likely hear the word's ordinary sense of being enthralled.

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