Other forms: grabbed, grabs, grabbing
To grab is to take hold of something fast and hard, with no care for being gentle. A hand shooting out for a falling glass, a child grabbing the last biscuit, someone grabbing your sleeve before you step off the kerb.
Half its life is informal and means get quickly: grab a coffee, grab a seat, grab your coat, grab a couple of hours of sleep. Things grab attention and grab the headlines. As a noun, he made a grab for the door handle and missed. Up for grabs means available to whoever wants it, and a land grab or a power grab is taking something you have no right to. Watch the spelling — the b doubles: grabbed, grabbing.
1verbgrabTo take hold of something suddenly and roughly.
“He grabbed the rail as the bus pulled away.”
2verbfetchTo get or take something quickly, without ceremony.
“Let's grab a coffee before the next meeting.”
synonyms: get, fetch
3verbappropriateTo take something unfairly or by force.
“The company grabbed the land before anyone could object.”
synonyms: appropriate, commandeer
4verbcatchTo attract someone's attention or interest sharply.
“The headline grabbed her before she had read a word of the story.”
5nounattemptA sudden attempt to take hold of something.
“He made a grab for the falling plate and missed it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: seize
Grab was borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German grabben, to grasp or snatch, related to Old Saxon gravan. Behind them is Proto-Germanic *grabōną, to gather or rake, from a Proto-Indo-European root *gʰrebʰ- with the same range — gather, rake, seize. The raking hand is older than the snatching one.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰrebʰ- — to gather, rake, grab, seize
Proto-Germanic
*grabōną — to gather, rake
Proto-West Germanic
*grabbōn
Old Saxon
gravan
Middle Low German
grabben — to grasp, grab, seize, snatch
Middle Dutch
grabben
English, today
grab
From Middle Dutch grabben or Middle Low German grabben (“to grasp, grab, seize, snatch”), from Old Saxon gravan, from Proto-West Germanic grabbōn, a secondary form of Proto-Germanic grabōną (“to gather, rake”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰrebʰ- (“to gather, rake, grab, seize”). Related to archaic German grappen (“to grab”), Danish grabbe (“to grab”), Swedish grabba (“to grab”), Old Norse grápa (“to seize, appropriate”), Middle English grappen (“to feel, grope, grasp, clutch”), Old English ġegræppian (“to seize”). Related also to Sanskrit गृह्णाति, गृभ्णाति (“he seizes”), ae 𐬔𐬭𐬀𐬠 (“to seize”)), mk грабне (“to snatch”), Bulgarian грабя (“to rob, to grab”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA