Grasping

How to spell grasping

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce grasping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does grasping mean?

1. verbSeizing or holding on to something firmly with the hands.
2. adjectiveExcessively eager to acquire money or possessions; greedy and avaricious.

Grasping in a sentence

• verb

  The toddler was grasping the rail as the bus moved.

• adjective

  The landlord had a mean, grasping attitude toward every tenant.

• verb

  She stood grasping the railing while the ferry pitched in the swell.

• adjective

  Critics called the firm grasping for raising fees during the crisis.

Where does grasping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base verb 'grasp' comes from Middle English graspen, recorded from around the 1300s, meaning to seize or clutch at something. It is widely thought to be a variant of an unrecorded earlier form related to grapsen, and it sits in the same Germanic family as 'gripe' and 'grip', all of which trace back to a root meaning to take hold firmly. The literal sense of physically closing the hand around an object came first, and by the 1500s the word had developed a figurative use describing a greedy person who reaches out to grab money or advantage. Adding the ordinary present participle ending -ing gave 'grasping', which kept both threads: the plain action of clutching and the unflattering character note of being avaricious. The spelling stays regular, since the single 'p' of grasp is simply followed by -ing, but writers sometimes hesitate over whether to double the final consonant; because the 'p' here is not the only consonant ending a short stressed syllable, no doubling happens.

How the word is built

• grasp (to seize, take hold of)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)