different between grasp vs beclap

English

Etymology

From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English gr?psan (“to touch, feel”), from Proto-Germanic *graipis?n?. Cognate with German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), Saterland Frisian Grapse (“double handful”). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????sp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æsp/
• Rhymes: -æsp

Verb

grasp (third-person singular simple present grasps, present participle grasping, simple past and past participle grasped)

1. To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
3. To understand.

   I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.

4. To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.

Synonyms

• (grip): clasp, grip, hold tight; See also Thesaurus:grasp
• (understand): comprehend, fathom
• (take advantage): jump at the chance, jump on

Derived terms

• begrasp
• foregrasp
• grasp the nettle

Related terms

Translations

Noun

grasp (plural grasps)

1. (sometimes figuratively) Grip.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
3. Understanding.
   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 13:

     There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.

4. That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.

Translations

Anagrams

• ARPGs, sprag

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English biclappen (“to grasp, insnare, catch, to trap suddenly, to grab suddenly”), equivalent to be- +? clap.

Alternative forms

• beclapp

Verb

beclap (third-person singular simple present beclaps, present participle beclapping, simple past and past participle beclapped)

1. To grasp, insnare, ensnare, catch, to trap suddenly, to grab suddenly.

Etymology 2

be- +? clap.

Verb

beclap (third-person singular simple present beclaps, present participle beclapping, simple past and past participle beclapped)

1. To clap for; to applaud.
   • 1886, in The Nation, volume 43, page 414:

     No one is so beclapped as the author of a popular drama bowing over his own footlights; the artists and romancers of the daily press are modester than they themselves would be willing to admit.

   • 1891, in Littell's living age, volume 191, page 260:

     In the course of his table-talk, during the French war, the ex-chancellor once remarked that, though the Prussian people huzza'd and beclapped their great Frederick when alive, […]

   • 1903, in New outlook (Alfred Emanuel Smith), volume 74, page 936:

     He who has loved quiet, who has so long shunned publicity, must school himself to be cheered and beclapped and huzzaed by thousands every time he lets himself be seen.