▪ I. grasping, vbl. n.
(ˈgrɑːspɪŋ, -æ-)
[f. grasp v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. grasp.
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 80 Gredy graspyng gat it. 1647 Sanderson Serm. II. 215 Ambitious spirits, who, for the grasping of a vast and unjust power..have [etc.]. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. §239 The grasping of the militia of the kingdom into their own hands..was..desired the Summer before. 1677 Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 408 They lick themselves whole by an overforward grasping at such passages of Scripture. 1841 Emerson Lect., Man Reformer Wks. (Bohn) II. 247 Let the amelioration in our laws of property proceed from the concession of the rich, not from the grasping of the poor. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. I. ii. 99 The history of almost every man's rise in the world consists of a succession of graspings and holdings. |
| attrib. 1876 Clinical Soc. IX. 146 The hand had regained ordinary grasping power. |
▪ II. grasping, ppl. a.
(ˈgrɑːspɪŋ, -æ-)
[-ing2.]
1. That grasps, in senses of the vb.; tenacious.
| 1577 Kendall Flowers Epigr. 93 b, And lastly deme thy fethered bedde, alwaies thy graspyng graue. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 20 It forst him slacke His grasping hold. 1816 Shelley Alastor 531 Nought but knarled roots of ancient pines Branchless and blasted, clenched with grasping roots The unwilling soil. 1883 G. Allen in Knowledge 20 July 34 The big grasping claws..in a crab. |
2. fig. Eager for gain, greedy, avaricious.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa I. 126 The less, surely, ought I to give into these grasping views of my brother. 1771 Burke Sp. Middlesex Election Wks. X. 65 This is..a difficult thing to the corrupt, grasping and ambitious part of human nature. 1813 Scott Rokeby iv. xxviii, My wealth, on which a kinsman nigh Already casts a grasping eye. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 555 He was generally thought interested and grasping. |
Hence ˈgraspingly adv., ˈgraspingness.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa I. 124 To take all that good-nature, or indulgence..confers shews..a graspingness that is unworthy of that indulgence. 1832 Lytton Eug. Aram i. vii, To be more graspingly selfish. 1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 201 Faults of self-assertion, graspingness, and violence. 1885 C. Lowe Bismarck II. 357 The Pope had proved himself to be graspingly unwise. 1890 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Dec. 209 Hard were their backs as anvils of steel, and graspingly arched nipper-armed claws before them. |