Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An iron shaft with claws at one end, usually thrown by a rope and used for grasping and holding, especially one for drawing and holding an enemy ship alongside. Also called grapnel, grappling, grappling hook, grappling iron.
- n. Nautical See grapnel.
- n. The act of grappling.
- n. A struggle or contest in which the participants attempt to clutch or grip each other.
- n. A struggle for superiority or dominance.
- v. To seize and hold, as with a grapple.
- v. To seize firmly, as with the hands.
- v. To hold onto something with or as if with a grapple.
- v. To use a grapple or similar device, as for dragging.
- v. To struggle, in or as if in wrestling: grappled with their consciences; grapple with the political realities of our time.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A hook or an iron instrument by which one thing, as a ship, fastens on another; a grapnel.
- n. A clasping-hook for grasping a beam, used in suspending the blocks or hoisting apparatus of a hay-fork.
- n. Large tongs with sharp points used for various purposes, as for lifting blocks of ice.
- n. The clasp of a buckle.
- n. A spring fish-hook.
- n. A seizing or gripping; especially, a close hold in wrestling, and hence in any other contest; a close fight or encounter.
- To seize or grasp with a grapple; lay fast hold on with mechanical appliances or with the hands: as, to grapple an antagonist.
- Synonyms To gripe, grasp, catch, clutch, clasp.
- To fasten on another, or on each other, as ships, by some mechanical means, as grappling-irons; seize another, or each other, in a close grip, as in wrestling; clinch: often used figuratively.
- n. plural Small iron dogs, joined by a short chain, which are driven into logs near the end when skidding on mountains, so that several logs may be skidded by one horse at the same time. Also called chain-grapples, coupling-grab.
- n. See skidding-tongs.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To seize something and hold it firmly.
- v. transitive, figuratively to ponder and intensely evaluate a problem; normally used with "with".
- v. intransitive To use a grapple.
- v. intransitive To wrestle or tussle.
- n. nautical A device consisting of iron claws, attached to the end of a rope, used for grasping and holding an enemy ship prior to boarding; a grapnel or grappling iron.
- n. uncountable The act of grappling.
- n. A close hand-to-hand struggle.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To seize; to lay fast hold of; to attack at close quarters: as, to grapple an antagonist.
- v. To fasten, as with a grapple; to fix; to join indissolubly.
- v. 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.
- n. A seizing or seizure; close hug in contest; the wrestler's hold.
- n. An instrument, usually with hinged claws, for seizing and holding fast to an object; a grab.
- n. (Naut.) A grappling iron.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a dredging bucket with hinges like the shell of a clam
- v. come to terms with
- n. the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat
- v. to grip or seize, as in a wrestling match
- n. a tool consisting of several hooks for grasping and holding; often thrown with a rope
Etymologies
- From Middle English *grapple, *graple, from Old French grappil ("a ship's grapple") (compare Old French grappin ("hook")), from Old French grape, grappe, crape ("hook"), of Germanic origin, from Old Frankish *krappo (“hook”), from Proto-Germanic *krappô, *krappan (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *grep- (“hook”), *gremb- (“crooked, uneven”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist”). More at grape. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English grapel, from Old French grapil, diminutive of grape, hook; see grape. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Ireland, which now faces a budget deficit equal to 32 percent of its economic output, has become a test case for how countries that have spent beyond their means - including the United States and Britain - grapple with massive deficits.”
The Washington Post: Ireland to bail out 3 banks, costing billions and renewing fears over deficit
“The future stories that remain grapple with current issues or have a contemporary flavor.”
“Bad example, but the grape-apple hybrid they sell at Walmart is referred to as grapple, which is completely unrelated to the serious mental or physical wrestling the original word connotes.”
“I shall again grapple with the foe that has thus bereaved me!”
“Complicating matters, there is another fruiting plant called the grapple the pronunciation is, in this case, homonymous.”
“UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It called a grapple, and it ` s a cross between a grape and an apple.”
“The claws are used in digging out ant-hills; but the beast has courage, and in a grapple is a rather unpleasant enemy, in spite of its toothless mouth, for it can strike a formidable blow with these claws.”
“This can be used to break a grapple that an enemy currently has your partner in or it can be used to knock down the enemy for a ground melee attack.”
“The NRL and most of it's clubs not only have serious financial issues, the game in Australia is being shackled by poor attendances, the salary cap system, star players fleeing the continent for big money in Europe, wrestling on field (otherwise known as the grapple tackle) and, perhaps most significant of all, players 'indiscretions off the field.”
“At that point, you know, I was trying really hard to kind of grapple with narrative, and I think I reached a point where the nonsense lyric was not really working for me anymore.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grapple’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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fight
words for fighting
( open list, randomness )bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 115 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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WF - weird sniglets
Phenomena of modern life that would go unnoticed if someone hadn't come up with a weird word for them. For the definitions see in the books of the bibliography listed here: hozone, apocalycloset, marade, Adam 69, alcolean, ancinemation, anniversorry, autoberg, carperimiter, cinemuck, doork, downpause and 253 more...
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Not edible
Things that sound edible but are not (usually). See Liberty's To Eat, or Not to Eat? for more diet food.
cinnabar, dulcimer, belfries, potto, maltha, grapple, loam, rake, tort, pomade, buffalo chip, wedgie and 172 more...
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Dungeons and Dragons
Would you like to join our party? We just started a new campaign.
For more general lists about role-playing games, see brandelion's RPG and lampbane's Tales of the Dread Gazebo.dungeons and dragons, d&d, elf, orc, halfling, drow, giant, troll, kobold, rpg, d20, human and 100 more...
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CCle
all those wonderful Britsy words that end with a double consonant followed by 'le'
doddle, bobble, dibble, whiffle, waffle, diddle, piddle, jiggle, straggle, boggle, fiddle, skeedaddle and 125 more...
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Hugonyms
Anything hugging related :)
squeeze, embrace, cuddle, nestle, cling, snuggle, arms, exchange, bear hug, thoughtful, affectionate, waist and 16 more...
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• God My Oh!
By-products of bioengineering – real ones, and new suggestions.
in-vitro meat, human-cow, lactose-free cow, tear-free onions, soymeat-flavored ..., vegetarian buffal..., grapple, coconberry, cashewe, rocket-propelled ..., deviled eggs, funyuns and 35 more...
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My woRdz...
layover, deet, etiquette, fondling, snog, dead letter office, lenient, severe, banter, grapple, sentiment, slacks and 1 more...
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Fake Food
batter blaster, cheez whiz, easy cheese, sno balls, jell-o, velveeta, hawaiian punch, fruit loops, cool whip, dream whip, pringles, pop-tart and 37 more...
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Rap-ture
rap, wrap, rapture, raptor, trap, grapple, krispy krap donuts, crappie, Irapuato, stenograph, graph paper, xerography and 11 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for grapple.

uselessness Don't grapple with my grapple! Nov 23, 2009
bilby Head text is black on the Word page.
"Out rushed the gnome-like men pulling their grapple, and Connor thrust his body between them and the Princess, taking the fierce rays on his own flesh." — Startling Stories January, 1939.
Yes, I'd be startled by gnome-like men pulling their grapple. Nov 23, 2009
dontcry my comment was not posted... Nov 23, 2009
dontcry I tasted a grapple today. It's an apple that tastes a bit like a concord grape. Actually, I found that it smells more like a grape than it tastes like one. Very delicious though.
I just noticed that the very large word is now purple. I rather liked the blue... Nov 23, 2009
bilby
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade.
- William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet'. Nov 10, 2008
Prolagus Apple-grapes hybrid.
(Actually, a Californiansearchengine search tells me that someone else thought about it before me.) Apr 14, 2008