GRAPPLE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Grapple

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/grˈæpəl/ Listen

verb

Grapple v. t. (past & past part. grappled; pres. part. grappling)

To seize; to lay fast hold of; to attack at close quarters: as, to grapple an antagonist.

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.

A seizing or seizure; close hug in contest; the wrestler's hold.

(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.

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Etymology of 'Grapple'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Grapple" Quotes from Famous Books

... against clan. Kubbee against Hippi, and so on. A Hippi, for example, will go into a ring and plant there a mudgee, or painted stick with a bunch of feathers at the top. In will run a Kubbee and try to make off with the stick; Hippi will grapple with him, and a wrestling match comes off. Into the ring will go others of each side wrestling in their turn. The side that finally throws the most men, and gets the mudgee, wins. Before wrestling matches, there is much greasing of bodies ...

— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... Allied Powers thus made at this crisis to grapple promptly with the French emperor have truly been termed gigantic; and never were Napoleon's genius and activity more signally displayed, than in the celerity and skill by which he brought forward all the military resources of France, which ...

— The Fifteen Decisive Battles of The World From Marathon to Waterloo • Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.

... any reason in the man's head, and Frank saw that he must subdue the fellow some way. Miller was determined to grapple with the boy, and Frank felt that he would find the mountaineer had the strength of an ox, for which reason he must keep clear of ...

— Frank Merriwell Down South • Burt L. Standish

... have seen in a previous chapter how Wilberforce, after twenty years of labor and anxiety, reaped the reward of his virtuous exertions in the abolition of the slave-trade. But he had not ventured to grapple with the institution which gave birth to that trade, the employment of slaves in our West India Islands. Yet it was an evil indefensible on every ground that could possibly be alleged. It was not only a crime and an injustice, but it was an ...

— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge

... 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 ...

— Joyous Gard • Arthur Christopher Benson

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