English

Verb

grip ‎(third-person singular simple present grips, present participle gripping, simple past and past participle gripped)

1. (transitive) To take hold of, particularly with the hand.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess:

     When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.

   That suitcase is heavy, so grip the handle firmly.‎

   The glue will begin to grip within five minutes.‎

   After a few slips, the tires gripped the pavement.‎

2. (transitive) To help or assist, particularly in an emotional sense.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     By and by fumes of brandy began to fill the air, and climb to where I lay, overcoming the mouldy smell of decayed wood and the dampness of the green walls. It may have been that these fumes mounted to my head, and gave me courage not my own, but so it was that I lost something of the stifling fear that had gripped me, and could listen with more ease to what was going forward

   He grips me.‎

3. (intransitive) To do something with another that makes you happy/gives you relief.

   Let’s grip (get a coffee, hang, take a break, see a movie, etc.)‎

4. To trench; to drain.

Derived term

• gripping

Translations

Etymology 2

An amalgam of Old English gripe ‎(“grasp, hold”) (cognate with German Griff) and Old English gripa ‎(“handful”) (cognate with Swedish grepp).

Noun

grip ‎(plural grips)

1. A hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand.

   It's good to have a firm grip when shaking hands.‎

   The ball will move differently depending on the grip used when throwing it.‎

2. A handle or other place to grip.

   the grip of a sword‎

   There are several good grips on the northern face of this rock.‎

3. (computing, graphical user interface) A visual component on a window etc. enabling it to be resized and/or moved.
4. (film production) A person responsible for handling equipment on the set.
5. A channel cut through a grass verge (especially for the purpose of draining water away from the highway).
6. (chiefly Southern California slang) A lot of something.

   That is a grip of cheese.‎

7. Archaic spelling of grippe: Influenza, flu.

   She has the grip.‎

8. (archaic) A small travelling-bag or gripsack.
9. An apparatus attached to a car for clutching a traction cable.
10. Assistance; help or encouragement. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

    He gave me a grip.‎

11. A helpful, interesting, admirable, or inspiring person.

    You're a real grip.‎

12. (slang) As much as one can hold in a hand; a handful.

    I need to get a grip of nails for my project.‎

13. (figuratively) A tenacious grasp; a holding fast.
    • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

      Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.

    in the grip of a blackmailer‎

14. A device for grasping or holding fast to something.

See also

• (a lot of) hella, hecka

Related terms

• come to grips
• get to grips with
• key grip
• get a grip
• gripper

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English grip, grippe, gryppe ‎(“a ditch, drain”), from Old English grēp ‎(“a furrow, burrow”) and grēpe ‎(“a furrow, ditch, drain”), from Proto-Germanic *grōpiz ‎(“a furrow, groove”). Cognate with Middle Dutch grippe, gruppe ‎(“ditch, drain”), greppe, German Low German Gruppe ‎(“ditch, drain”). Related also to Old English grōp ‎(“a ditch, drain”). More at groop.

Alternative forms

• gripe

Noun

grip ‎(plural grips)

1. (dialectal) A small ditch or trench; a channel to carry off water or other liquid; a drain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ray to this entry?)

Derived terms

• gripple

Etymology 4

Latin grypus, gryphus.

Noun

grip ‎(plural grips)

1. (obsolete) The griffin.

Anagrams

• IGRP, prig

Albanian

Noun

grip m

1. The flu, influenza

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowing from French grippe, from Frankish *grīpan ‎(“to seize”), from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną.

Noun

grip f ‎(uncountable)

1. flu (influenza)

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch gripen. See grijpen.

Noun

grip m ‎(plural grippen, diminutive gripje n)

1. hold (to ensure control)

See also

• greep

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French grippe ‎(“influenza”).

Noun

grip

1. influenza, flu

Icelandic

Noun

grip

1. indefinite accusative singular of gripur
2. indefinite dative singular of gripur

Ladino

Etymology

Borrowing from French grippe ‎(“influenza”).

Noun

grip f ‎(Latin spelling)

1. (medicine) influenza, flu

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

grip

1. imperative of gripe

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

grip

1. present tense of gripa and gripe
2. imperative of gripa and gripe

Romansch

Noun

grip m (plural grips)

1. rock

Swedish

Noun

grip c

1. griffin

Verb

grip

1. imperative of gripa.

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowing from French grippe.

Noun

grip ‎(definite accusative gripi, plural gripler)

1. (pathology) flu, influenza, grippe

Yola

Noun

grip

1. stitch

References

• J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)