Other forms: grappling, grappled, grapples
To grapple is to struggle with somebody, or with a hard problem. Grapple with him, grapple with the question, grappled to the ground.
The physical sense means holding and wrestling at close quarters rather than striking, which is the whole of some martial arts. The figurative sense takes with and is very common in writing about difficulty. A grappling hook grips at a distance. Note grab, from the same root.
Grapple comes from a Germanic root meaning to seize. Grab and grip come from the same seizing.
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
grab
English, today
grapple
From grapplen, from græpplian (compare Old English ġegræppian (“to seize”)), from graipilōną, grabbalōną (“to seize”), from gʰrebʰ-, equivalent to grab + le. Cognate with Dutch grabbelen (“to grope, scramble, scrabble”), German grabbeln (“to rummage, grope about”) and grapsen, grapschen (“to seize, grasp, grabble”). Influenced in some senses by grapple (“tool with claws or hooks”) (see below). See further at grasp. grab comes 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