Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Grapple   /grˈæpəl/   Listen
verb
Grapple  v. t.  (past & past part. grappled; pres. part. grappling)  
1.
To seize; to lay fast hold of; to attack at close quarters: as, to grapple an antagonist.
2.
To fasten, as with a grapple; to fix; to join indissolubly. "The gallies were grappled to the Centurion." "Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel."



Grapple  v. i.  To use a grapple; to contend in close fight; to attach one's self as if by a grapple, as in wrestling; to close; to seize one another.
To grapple with, to enter into contest with, resolutely and courageously. "And in my standard bear the arms of York, To grapple with the house of Lancaster."



noun
Grapple  n.  
1.
A seizing or seizure; close hug in contest; the wrestler's hold.
2.
(a)
An instrument, usually with hinged claws, for seizing and holding fast to an object; a grab.
(b)
(Naut.) A grappling iron. "The iron hooks and grapples keen."
Grapple plant (Bot.), a South African herb (Herpagophytum leptocarpum) having the woody fruits armed with long hooked or barbed thorns by which they adhere to cattle, causing intense annoyance.
Grapple shot (Life-saving Service), a projectile, to which are attached hinged claws to catch in a ship's rigging or to hold in the ground; called also anchor shot.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Grapple" Quotes from Famous Books



... found right here, as I have many times found among our American farmers, an intelligence (a literacy growing out of what I believe to be improper education) which was better able to discuss the problems of rural life than to grapple with and solve them. A dull, illiterate Polish farmer, I have found, will sometimes succeed much better at the job of life than his ...
— The Friendly Road - New Adventures in Contentment • (AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

... fleet still expected the ships of Rhodes, and as Polyxenidas relied on the superior seaworthiness of his vessels, those of Tyre and Sidon in particular, he immediately accepted battle. At the outset the Asiatics succeeded in sinking one of the Carthaginian vessels; but, when they came to grapple, Roman valour prevailed, and it was owing solely to the swiftness of their rowing and sailing that the enemy lost no more than 23 ships. During the pursuit the Roman fleet was joined by 25 ships from Rhodes, and the superiority of the Romans ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... absorbed and scared in her adventure to reply. She actually managed to reach the top and to stand there tiptoeing the edge uncertainly, her small fingers clasping the tree-trunk convulsively and her arms trying to grapple with it for a surer hold. But suddenly she gave a piercing scream, and Nan, peering down through the branches in instant alarm, saw Ruth lying at the foot of the tree in a pitiful little motionless heap, and knew in a moment that she had ...
— The Governess • Julie M. Lippmann

... task? Statesmen as wise and patriotic as any the world ever produced, have shrunk from the task, confounded and abashed. Where is Clay! Where is Webster? All that was earthly of them, is no more. Long did they grapple with the monster slavery, and by their wise councils, through many a dark and stormy period, did they safely conduct the ship of State. But they are gone, and shall we now confide the interests of this great nation, to the keeping of a few sickly sentimentalists? No, ...
— A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin - or, An Essay on Slavery • A. Woodward

... life so but finding it so;—it is a plea that such as these should learn how experience, even under cramped conditions, may be finely and beautifully interpreted, and made rich by renewed intention. Because the secret lies hid in this, that we must observe life intently, grapple with it eagerly; and if we have a hundred lives before us, we can never conquer life till we have learned to ride above it, not welter helplessly below it. And the cramped and restricted life is all the grander for this, that it gives us a nobler chance of conquest ...
— Joyous Gard • Arthur Christopher Benson


More quotes...



Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com