GRAPPLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grapple mean? 

• GRAPPLE (noun)
  The noun GRAPPLE has 3 senses:

1. a tool consisting of several hooks for grasping and holding; often thrown with a rope

2. a dredging bucket with hinges like the shell of a clam

3. the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat

  Familiarity information: GRAPPLE used as a noun is uncommon.

• GRAPPLE (verb)
  The verb GRAPPLE has 2 senses:

1. succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available

2. to grip or seize, as in a wrestling match

  Familiarity information: GRAPPLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRAPPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A tool consisting of several hooks for grasping and holding; often thrown with a rope

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

grapnel; grapple; grappler; grappling hook; grappling iron

Hypernyms ("grapple" is a kind of...):

tool (an implement used in the practice of a vocation)

Meronyms (parts of "grapple"):

claw; hook (a mechanical device that is curved or bent to suspend or hold or pull something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "grapple"):

crampon; crampoon (a hinged pair of curved iron bars; used to raise heavy objects)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A dredging bucket with hinges like the shell of a clam

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

clamshell; grapple

Hypernyms ("grapple" is a kind of...):

dredging bucket (a bucket for lifting material from a channel or riverbed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

grapple; grappling; hand-to-hand struggle; wrestle; wrestling

Context example:

we watched his grappling and wrestling with the bully

Hypernyms ("grapple" is a kind of...):

struggle (strenuous effort)

Derivation:

grapple (to grip or seize, as in a wrestling match)

• GRAPPLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they grapple    ... he / she / it grapples   
Past simple: grappled   
Past participle: grappled   
-ing form: grappling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

contend; cope; deal; get by; grapple; make do; make out; manage

Context example:

They made do on half a loaf of bread every day

Hypernyms (to "grapple" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "grapple"):

extemporize; improvise (manage in a makeshift way; do with whatever is at hand)

fend (try to manage without help)

cut; hack (be able to manage or manage successfully)

rub along; scrape along; scrape by; scratch along; squeak by; squeeze by (manage one's existence barely)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

To grip or seize, as in a wrestling match

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

grapple; grip

Context example:

the two men grappled with each other for several minutes

Hypernyms (to "grapple" is one way to...):

clutch; prehend; seize (take hold of; grab)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

grapple (the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat)

grappler (combatant who tries to throw opponent to the ground)

grappling (the sport of hand-to-hand struggle between unarmed contestants who try to throw each other down)

grappling (the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat)

 Context examples 

Then she rose to it and grappled with it.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"You should not have yielded: you should have grappled with her at once," said Mr. Rochester.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I seen him grapple four and knock their heads together—him unarmed.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He went away on the word, leaving me with a new mystery to think of, a new puzzle to grapple with.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

All hands were on deck now, and all eyes were aloft, where a human life was at grapples with death.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The next instant he was grappling with Buck on the extreme edge, while Hans and Pete were dragging them back into safety.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

To my childish imagination it was a personal affair, and I for ever saw my father and this clean-shaven, thin-lipped man swaying and reeling in a deadly, year-long grapple.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Above them lay the Englishmen in their lines, even as they had stood, and higher yet upon the plateau a wild medley of the dead of all nations, where the last deadly grapple had left them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He wanted her to feel with him this big thing that was his, that he had seen with his own eyes, grappled with his own brain, and placed there on the page with his own hands in printed words.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It has been an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which you have grappled with this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be forced to take any extreme measure.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)