grip

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
grip/ɡrɪp/

▶verb (grips, gripping, gripped)

• 1 take and keep a firm hold of.

• 2 (of an emotion or situation) have a strong or adverse effect on.

  ■ (often as adj. gripping) hold the attention or interest of.

▶noun

• 1 a firm hold.

  ■ effective control: he had to take a grip on his nerves.

  ■ an understanding of something.

• 2 a part or attachment by which something is held in the hand.

  ■ Brit. a hairgrip.

• 3 a travelling bag.

• 4 a stagehand in a theatre.

  ■ a member of a camera crew responsible for moving and setting up equipment.

– phrases
come (or get) to grips with

• 1 engage in combat with.

• 2 begin to deal with or understand.

lose one's grip become unable to understand or control one's situation.

– derivatives
gripper noun,
grippingly adverb,
grippy adjective .

– origin OE grippa (v.), gripe ‘grasp, clutch’ (n.), gripa ‘handful, sheath’; rel. to gripe.