come to grips with

Idioms  

1. Confront squarely, deal decisively with, as in Her stories help the children come to grips with upsetting events. This term, sometimes put as get to grips with, employs grip in the sense of a “tight hold.” [Mid-1900s]

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Example Sentences

Because, for veterans of modern warfare, the question isn’t how to come to grips with something that befell us in the manner of a natural disaster.

From Slate • Mar. 16, 2026

Ultimately, it shows us something that we as a nation had better come to grips with sooner rather than later.

From Salon • Feb. 27, 2026

U.S. companies and the federal government haven’t come to grips with Americans’ longer lives, Stern says.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 18, 2025

Previously unseen bodycam footage taken after the collapse shows first responders and officials struggling to come to grips with the enormity of what they faced in the confusing hours after the crash.

From BBC • Dec. 5, 2024

Moreover, 1939 was too early to come to grips with the fact that the protein and RNA components were likely to be constructed along radically different lines.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson