grappling
[grap-ling]
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Origin of grappling
grapple
[grap-uh l]
- to hold or make fast to something, as with a grapple.
- to use a grapple.
- to seize another, or each other, in a firm grip, as in wrestling; clinch.
- to engage in a struggle or close encounter (usually followed by with): He was grappling with a boy twice his size.
- to try to overcome or deal (usually followed by with): to grapple with a problem.
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- to seize, hold, or fasten with or as with a grapple.
- to seize in a grip, take hold of: The thug grappled him around the neck.
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- a hook or an iron instrument by which one thing, as a ship, fastens onto another; grapnel.
- a seizing or gripping.
- a grip or close hold in wrestling or hand-to-hand fighting.
- a close, hand-to-hand fight.
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Origin of grapple
Synonyms
See more synonyms for grapple on Thesaurus.com5. struggle, contend, wrestle, cope, tussle.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for grappling
Contemporary Examples
We read Thomas Piketty because we needed to understand these failures to have any hope of grappling with them.
When Booker assumed office, his half-a-million constituents were grappling with high unemployment and rampant poverty.
Now Europe is grappling with its worst fear—the threat of an Ebola outbreak.
Given the daunting problems the city is grappling with—massive debt and a severe pension crisis—can you blame them?
I love all the trappings of a classic heist plot: stopwatches and masks, grappling hooks and black turtlenecks.
Historical Examples
You think of your wife, grappling with a kind of difficulty to which she is unaccustomed.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
He paused again, grappling with this amazing revelation of self.
The Fortune HunterLouis Joseph Vance
Visibly an idea had visited him with which he was grappling.
The Paliser caseEdgar Saltus
“Grappling with life” and earnestly studying a profession then might have extinguished me.
MemoirsCharles Godfrey Leland
Two lines were thrown, each with a grappling hook on the end.
Dave Darrin on Mediterranean ServiceH. Irving Hancock
grappling
- the act of gripping or seizing, as in wrestling
- a hook used for securing something
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grapple
- to come to grips with (one or more persons), esp to struggle in hand-to-hand combat
- (intr foll by with) to cope or contendto grapple with a financial problem
- (tr) to secure with a grapple
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- any form of hook or metal instrument by which something is secured, such as a grapnel
- the act of gripping or seizing, as in wrestling
- a grip or hold
- a contest of grappling, esp a wrestling match
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Word Origin
C16: from Old French grappelle a little hook, from grape hook; see grapnel
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for grappling
grapple
n.
late 13c., from Old French grapil "hook" (see grapnel). The verb is 1520s, "seize and hold fast," from the noun. Sense of "battle, struggle (with)" is from 1590s. Related: Grappled; grappling.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper