Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To take or grasp suddenly.
  • intransitive verb To capture or restrain; arrest.
  • intransitive verb To obtain or appropriate unscrupulously or forcibly.
  • intransitive verb To take hurriedly.
  • intransitive verb Slang To capture the attention of.
  • intransitive verb To make a grasping or snatching motion.
  • noun A sudden attempt to grasp or hold something.
  • noun A sudden, often unscrupulous taking control or ownership of something.
  • noun A mechanical device for gripping an object.
  • adjective Relating or being an object or device that is grabbed or gripped for support or balance.
  • idiom (up for grabs) Available for anyone to take or win.
  • noun A usually two-masted, square-rigged Arab coastal vessel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To seize forcibly or roughly; grip suddenly; snatch; hence, to get possession of rudely, roughly, forcibly, or illegally.
  • noun A vessel used on the Malabar coast, having two or three masts.
  • To strike the heel of the front foot with the toe of the hind foot: said of a horse.
  • noun The act of grabbing; a sudden grasp or seizure; a catch; hence, acquisition by violent, dishonest, or corrupt means.
  • noun Something that is grabbed or obtained by grabbing.
  • noun A mechanical device for gripping an object; a grip. Specifically
  • noun A form of dredger-bucket used for digging soft materials; a clam-shell bucket.
  • noun plural Same as skidding-tongs.
  • noun In forestry, the stem of an alder, or other small tree, which is bent over and plugged into a hole bored in a boom-stick, or secured in some other way, to hold a boom or logs inshore.
  • noun A children's game at cards, in which, when two or more cards of equal value are on the table together, the player who is quickest to recognize and grab them adds them to his own hand.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Naut.) A vessel used on the Malabar coast, having two or three masts.
  • verb To gripe suddenly; to seize; to snatch; to clutch.
  • noun A sudden grasp or seizure.
  • noun An instrument for clutching objects for the purpose of raising them; -- specially applied to devices for withdrawing drills, etc., from artesian and other wells that are drilled, bored, or driven.
  • noun [Colloq.] at fairs, a bag or box holding small articles which are to be drawn, without being seen, on payment of a small sum.
  • noun [Colloq.] a theft committed by grabbing or snatching a purse or other piece of property.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb to make a sudden grasping or clutching motion (at something)
  • verb to restrain someone; to arrest
  • verb to grip the attention; to enthrall
  • verb informal to quickly collect or retrieve
  • verb informal to consume something quickly
  • verb To take the opportunity of.
  • noun a sudden snatch (for something)
  • noun a mechanical device that grabs
  • noun media a soundbite

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a grasping or snatching motion with the hand
  • verb obtain illegally or unscrupulously
  • verb capture the attention or imagination of
  • noun a mechanical device for gripping an object
  • verb take hold of so as to seize or restrain or stop the motion of
  • verb get hold of or seize quickly and easily
  • noun the act of catching an object with the hands
  • verb take or grasp suddenly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete Dutch or Low German grabben, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German; see ghrebh- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic g̣urāb, raven, swift galley; see g̣rb in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle Dutch grabben ("to grab") or Middle Low German grabben ("to snap"), from Proto-Germanic *grab-, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerebʰ- (compare Sanskrit गृह्णाति (gṛhṇāti, "he seizes"), गृभ्णाति (gṛbhṇāti)). Cognate with Danish grabbe ("to grab"), Swedish grabba ("to grab"), Old English ġegræppian ("to seize").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word grab.

Examples

  • Proposed changes visible to users leverage grape system even for Groovy's GDK (may involve "bundled grapes") enhance GroovyStarter/LoaderConfiguration to support -- grab on commandline and grab in conf file (see also GROOVY-3215 conf file in Groovy) (slightly orthogonal but related change) enhance AST transform support to allow scripts to grab without need for a class or method definition, e.g. "@grab (...)

    Dashboard RSS Feed Ella21 2010

  • Proposed changes visible to users leverage grape system even for Groovy's GDK (may involve "bundled grapes") enhance GroovyStarter/LoaderConfiguration to support -- grab on commandline and grab in conf file (see also GROOVY-3215 conf file in Groovy) (slightly orthogonal but related change) enhance AST transform support to allow scripts to grab without need for a class or method definition, e.g. "@grab (...)

    Dashboard RSS Feed 2010

  • It's either your title grab your viewers 'attention or they simply decide that they are not interested.

    Purpleocity.net 2009

  • But the Cash for Clunkers program has been revealed as a total taxpayer money giveaway to Japan with severely NEGATIVE environmental impacts, the health care power-grab is being seen for its true colors – everything the Obamessiah touches turns to garbage.

    Obama approval dips to new low in Florida 2009

  • I don't know about the movie, but that one screen grab is delicious.

    Twelve Movie Trailer: Joel Schumacher is Back With…Something | /Film 2010

  • Lester might want to reach through mic in grab your throat but.

    A 'Hereafter' Where Matt Damon Sees Dead People 2010

  • Lester might want to reach through mic in grab your throat but.

    A 'Hereafter' Where Matt Damon Sees Dead People 2010

  • No need here to recount the sorry story of Referendum C. If Ref C was a drunk running a tab, pillaging Pinnacol would be a smash-and-grab from the plate glass of the liquor store.

    Freeze It, Personalize It, Polarize It « View From a Height 2009

  • Lester might want to reach through mic in grab your throat but.

    A 'Hereafter' Where Matt Damon Sees Dead People 2010

  • Lester might want to reach through mic in grab your throat but.

    A 'Hereafter' Where Matt Damon Sees Dead People 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.