grasping (adj.)

"greedy, acquisitive," late 14c., present-participle adjective from grasp (v.). Related: Graspingly.

Entries linking to grasping

mid-14c., "to reach, grope, feel around," possibly a metathesis of grapsen, from Old English *græpsan "to touch, feel," from Proto-Germanic *grap-, *grab- (source also of East Frisian grapsen "to grasp," Middle Dutch grapen "to seize, grasp," Old English grapian "to touch, feel, grope"), from PIE root *ghrebh- (1) "to seize, reach" (see grab (v.)). With verb-formative -s- as in cleanse. Sense of "seize" first recorded mid-16c. Transitive use by 17c. Figurative use from c. 1600; of intellectual matters from 1680s. Related: Grasped; grasping.

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Definitions of grasping

grasping (n.)

understanding with difficulty;

the lecture was beyond his most strenuous graspings

grasping (n.)

the act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles);

Synonyms: taking hold / seizing / prehension

grasping (adj.)

immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth;

a grasping old miser

grasping commercialism

Synonyms: avaricious / covetous / grabby / greedy / prehensile

From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near grasping

grappa

grapple

grappler

graptolite

grasp

grasping

grass

grass roots

grass widow

grasshopper

grassland