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

Those are realities that the media, the activist community and people in government need to come to grips with.

From Salon • Jun. 15, 2026

If that special story is wrong, he said, the Fed has “to come to grips with that” by acknowledging rates may not be high enough to bring down inflation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026

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

From MarketWatch • Dec. 12, 2025

Meanwhile, in Utah, witnesses, law enforcement and state and local leaders continue to come to grips with the trauma of the day.

From BBC • Sep. 10, 2025

That choice Renly had denied himself in his headlong rush to come to grips with his brother.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin