grapple
verb
- deal with
noun
- Tool with claws or hooks used to catch or hold something
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈɡɹæpəl/
noun
Etymology: Blend of grape + apple.
- A combination of grape and apple flavors.
“Lady Cheron looks at the cupboards. Both apple butter and apple jelly, as well as "grapple" (grape-apple) jelly are sitting in little mason jars on the top shelf.”
“Bradley’s mother prefers grapple juice that is 25 percent grape and 75 percent apple.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English *grapple, *graple, from Old French grappil (“a ship's grapple”) (compare Old French grappin (“hook”)), from Old French grape, grappe, crape (“hook”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *krappō (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *grep- (“hook”), *gremb- (“crooked, uneven”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist”). See further at grape. Influenced in some senses by grapple (“seize”, verb) (see above).
- To fasten, as with a grapple; (by extension) to fix; to join indissolubly.
“The gallies were grapled to the Centurion.”
“Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.”
- To climb (whether by means of a grapple and rope, or by hand, etc).
“Sam quickly geared up and placed the first hook. “I am coming as well,” Alicia announced. […] Sam planted the anchor and then grappled down as Alicia struggled to move more than a foot or shift down.”
“In cases such as this, the Silencer usually grappled up the outside of the building. But Rumpus' tower was sixty storeys tall […]”
- To use a grapple (for example to attempt to find, hook, and raise a net or cable).
“The following days I spent patrolling the river and grappling for nets. On Wednesday , 18th July , left Gananoque at 7 a.m.; patrolled down to Rockport, […]”
“After returning from the cable factory with another load of cable and repeaters, the buoy will be recovered or the rope grappled for. When the previous section is aboard the ship, transmission tests are made […]”
- To hook and raise with a grapple.
“The place where the cable got jammed and broken at the bottom was two or three miles from where I grappled up the cable the first time. I do not, of course, know for certain whether rocks with crevices exist.”
“[page 11:] Weston had just grappled the net, when we saw the light corning up the lake. [page 15:] A. About an hour and a half after dark with Weston I rowed across to this point where the net was set, and he, with a grappling hook, grappled up the net.”