different between grab vs compress

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch grabben (“to grab”) or Middle Low German grabben (“to snap”), from Proto-Germanic *grab-, from Proto-Indo-European *g?reb?- (compare Sanskrit ???????? (g?h???ti), ???????? (g?bh???ti, “he seizes”), Avestan ????????????????????? (gar^??, “to seize”)). Cognate with Danish grabbe (“to grab”), Swedish grabba (“to grab”), Old English ?egræppian (“to seize”), Middle English grappen (“to feel with the hands; grope”), Macedonian ?????? (grabne, “to snatch”), ??????? (grabvam, “to snatch”).

Verb

grab (third-person singular simple present grabs, present participle grabbing, simple past and past participle grabbed)

1. (transitive) To grip suddenly; to seize; to clutch.

2. (intransitive) To make a sudden grasping or clutching motion (at something).

3. To restrain someone; to arrest.
4. (transitive) To grip the attention of; to enthrall or interest.

   How does that idea grab you?

5. (informal) To quickly collect or retrieve.
   • 1987 James Grady Just a Shot Away, Bantam, page 117:

     "I'll just grab my jacket," said Manh-Hung.

   • 1999 Jillian Dagg, Racing Hearts, Thomas Bouregy & Co., page 105:

     Hardly believing that Rafe actually planned to relax for a while, Kate nodded. "All right. Fine. I'll just go grab my purse."

   • 2009 Mike Taylor, A Thousand Sleeps, Tate Publishing, page 216:

     He looked at Albert and Ben, and then back to Nurse Allen. "I'll just grab my gear and be right back."

6. (informal) To consume something quickly.

7. To take the opportunity of.

Translations

Noun

grab (countable and uncountable, plural grabs)

1. (countable) A sudden snatch at something.
   • 1931 Harold M. Sherman, "The Baseball Clown," Boys' Life, volume 21, No. 4 (April 1931), Boy Scouts of America, page 47:

     The ball popped in and popped out, and when he made a grab for it on the ground he kicked it with his foot.

   • 2003 J Davey, Six Years of Darkness, Trafford Publishing, page 66:

     He made a grab for me and I swung my handbag at him as hard as I could.

2. (countable) An acquisition by violent or unjust means.
3. (countable) A mechanical device that grabs or clutches.
   1. A device for withdrawing drills, etc., from artesian and other wells that are drilled, bored, or driven.
4. (countable, media) A sound bite.
5. (obsolete) That which is seized.
6. (uncountable) A simple card game.

Synonyms

• catch
• clutch
• grasp
• seize
• snatch

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Arabic and Hindi ghurb?: crow, raven, a kind of Arab ship. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

grab (plural grabs)

1. A two- or three-masted vessel used on the Malabar coast.

Alternative forms

• gurab

Anagrams

• ARGB, brag, garb

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *grabr?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?rap]

Noun

grab m

1. hornbeam (tree of genus Carpinus)

Declension

Further reading

• grab in Ernst Muka/Mucke (St. Petersburg and Prague 1911–28): S?ownik dolnoserbskeje r?cy a jeje nar?cow / Wörterbuch der nieder-wendischen Sprache und ihrer Dialekte. Reprinted 2008, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
• grab in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski s?ownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rap/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Slavic *grab(r)?, from Proto-Indo-European *gr?b?-

Noun

grab m inan

1. hornbeam, any tree of genus Carpinus.

Declension

Derived terms

• (adjective) grabowy
• (nouns) grabina, grabniak

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

grab f

1. genitive plural of graba

Verb

grab

1. second-person singular imperative of grabi?

Further reading

• grab in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• grab in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *grab(r)?, from Proto-Indo-European *gr?b?-

Noun

grab m (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. hornbeam

Declension

Thai

Romanization

grab

1. Romanization of ????

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English compressen, from Old French compresser, from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprim? (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + prem? (“press”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?mpr?s', IPA^(key): /k?m?p??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

compress (third-person singular simple present compresses, present participle compressing, simple past and past participle compressed)

1. (transitive) To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.
   • June 17, 1825, Daniel Webster, Speech on the laying of the Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument

     events of centuries […] compressed within the compass of a single life

   • 1810, William Melmoth (translator), Letters of Pliny

     The same strength of expression, though more compressed, runs through his historical harangues.

2. (intransitive) To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.

3. (transitive) To condense into a more economic, easier format.

4. (transitive) To abridge.

5. (technology, transitive) To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.
6. (obsolete) To embrace sexually.
   • 1727, Alexander Pope, Metamorphoses

     This Nymph compress'd by him who rules the day,
     Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey,
     Andræmon lov'd; and , bless'd in all those charms
     That pleas'd a God, succeeded to her arms

Synonyms

• (press together): compact, condense, pack, press, squash, squeeze; see also Thesaurus:compress
• (be pressed together): contract
• (condense, abridge): abridge, condense, shorten, truncate; see also Thesaurus:shorten

Antonyms

• (press together): expand
• (be pressed together): decontract
• (condense, abridge): expand, lengthen
• (make computing data smaller): uncompress

Derived terms

Related terms

• compression

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French compresse, from compresse (“to compress”), from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprim? (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + prem? (“press”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?mp??s/
• (US) enPR: k?m'pr?s, IPA^(key): /?k?mp??s/

Noun

compress (plural compresses)

2. A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.

3. A machine for compressing.

Related terms

• compression

Translations