grab (ɡræb
)
Definitions
verb
Word forms: grabs, grabbing, grabbed
- to seize hold of (something)
- (tr) to seize illegally or unscrupulously
- (tr) to arrest; catch
- (intr) (of a brake or clutch in a vehicle) to grip and release intermittently causing juddering
- (tr) informal to catch the attention or interest of; impress
noun
- the act or an instance of grabbing
- a mechanical device for gripping objects, esp the hinged jaws of a mechanical excavator
- something that is grabbed
- See up for grabs
Alternative Forms
ˈgrabber nounWord Origin
C16: probably from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch grabben; related to Swedish grabba, Sanskrit grbhnāti he seizesTranslations
- British English:
grab
If you grab something, you take it or pick it up roughly.I grabbed him by the neck.ɡræb VERB I grabbed him by the neck.
- Spanish:
agarrar
v
- French:
attraper
vt
- German:
ergreifen
v
- Chinese: 抢夺 v
- Arabic: يَقْبِضُ vt
- Portuguese: agarrar v
- Russian: хватать v
- Croatian: grabiti v
- Czech: popadnout v popadat
- Danish: gribe v
- Dutch: grijpen v
- Finnish: tarttua v
- Greek: αρπάζω v
- Italian: afferrare v
- Japanese: ひっつかむ v
- Korean: 움켜잡다 v
- Norwegian: gripe v
- Polish: porwać v porywać
- Brazilian Portuguese: agarrar v
- European Spanish:
agarrar
v
- Swedish: ta tag i v
- Thai: จับฉวย v
- Turkish: kavramak v
- Vietnamese: tóm v
Usage examples
Lirael only just managed to drop her bow and grab the hound's tail before the Dog went over the side.
, LIRAEL: DAUGHTER OF THE CLAYR (2001)Right when you grab for the razor blade, the music and the mood brightens.
Maxim (2005)For Palestinians, partition was a criminal land grab that threatened their dispossession, not an act of Jewish liberation.
Globe and Mail (2003)Often they mistakenly grab medicinal rhubarb instead of the culinary variety.
Glasgow Herald (2001)Instead of `growing old gracefully", many women pathetically grab at
, Flower Remedies for Women (1994)