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Grab   Listen
noun
Grab  n.  
1.
A sudden grasp or seizure.
2.
An instrument for clutching objects for the purpose of raising them; specially applied to devices for withdrawing drills, etc., from artesian and other wells that are drilled, bored, or driven.
Grab bag, at fairs, a bag or box holding small articles which are to be drawn, without being seen, on payment of a small sum. (Colloq.)
Grab game, a theft committed by grabbing or snatching a purse or other piece of property. (Colloq.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Grab" Quotes from Famous Books



... could carry a message for them to the outside world—a beetle, who could BURROW his way into the open air. Of course it was only a slim chance that the beetle would be ever caught and the letter read. But it was a chance; and when men are in great danger they grab at any straw of hope.... All right. Now look at the next picture: men pointing to their open mouths—they are hungry; men praying—begging any one who finds this letter to come to their assistance; men lying down—they are sick, or starving. This letter, ...
— The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle • Hugh Lofting

... idea of engaging in a fight with a pack of tough boys right here in town," remarked Jack, "because they know the police would grab them first, no matter if they were only defending themselves. That's why they don't hit back, but only dodge the ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren

... order through a sliding door and grab it when it should be pushed forth from a mysterious realm. Kedzie picked up a newspaper that Skip had picked up after some early client ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes

... nothin' since yisterday, mister, and I got that out of a ash-barrel. I'm up agin it hard. Can't you see I ain't lyin'? You ain't never starved or you'd know. You ain't—" He wavered, his eyes glittering, edged a step nearer, and with a quick lunge made a grab ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith

... he'd a known that his was nothing to brag of. I didn't know just how good a man Abe was and I was kind o' scairt for a minute. I never found it so hard work to do nothin' as I did then. Honest my hands kind o' ached. I wanted to go an' cuff that feller's ears an' grab hold o' him an' toss him over the ridge pole. Abe went right up to him ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories • Various

... forcing back his head with his left hand while his right fumbled under his coat. I guessed he was after his bowie-knife. I gripped his arm and gave it a twist that made him let out a yell. Jumping straight up, he made to grab me, when Allan, who had just appeared, swung out his right arm and dealt him a terrific blow on the face. He fell like a tree that had got its last cut. The other man now looked in, and seeing his comrade insensible and bleeding, cried out to us, 'You will hang for this!' 'Take the brute away and ...
— The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825 • Gordon Sellar

... wouldn't let it, Anne! If I creep through that tunnel, I'd shove the torch in first and keep it moving ahead of me all the way, so that nothing could grab me, you see!" said ...
— Polly of Pebbly Pit • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... grab for it, never saying a word, and as he went out of the doorway that was the last I ever ...
— Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas • Lloyd Osbourne

... against change? Because, so far, every economic system has divided society into two classes, a comparatively small class who own things and a large one who make things, and if the few honest owners are to hold their own as divinely favored "grab-it-alls," they must be protected at every point against the many dishonest makers who are diabolically tempted to ...
— Communism and Christianism - Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View • William Montgomery Brown

... surrounding them? Came in the cars to Portland. Dust disgusting! Shall never again see the original color of my coat! Dust laid on inches deep, the continual presence of a mob, and peril to life and limb; death staring you in the face, ready to grab you at any moment. This is what we get by the modern improvement of rail-cars over a gentleman's carriage, with select and elect friends, and leisure to look at a beautiful country! Travelers now are prisoners under sentence of probable death—their jailer being called a conductor. Oh! I cry ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... no 'ifs'—when it comes to 'cusing my mistiss' child of stealing and murdering. Suppose the sheriff was to light down here this minute, and grab you up and tell folks 'spectable witnesses swore you broke open your Uncle Mitchell's safe, and brained him with a handi'on? Would you think it friendly for people to say, if she didn't they will soon turn her aloose? Would that be any warm poultice to your hurt feelin's? It's the stinging ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... sharply for signs of a dog. Not one could he see. If there was a dog, he must be either in the barn or in the house. It was quite clear to Reddy that no Fox had bothered this flock of fat hens. He was sorely tempted to rush out and grab one of them at once, but he didn't. He was far too clever to do anything like that until he was absolutely sure that it would ...
— Bowser The Hound • Thornton W. Burgess

... long, Flask. But I am going now to keep a sharp look-out on him; and if I see anything very suspicious going on, I'll just take him by the nape of his neck, and say —Look here, Beelzebub, you don't do .. it; and if he makes any fuss, by the Lord I'll make a grab into his pocket for his tail, take it to the capstan, and give him such a wrenching and heaving, that his tail will come short off at the stump —do you see; and then, I rather guess when he finds himself ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... one, if this thing fell from a roof, as I believe it did. It was a little bundle, done up in a handkerchief, and I saw it only as it touched the ground, about a dozen yards in front. Then I hurried on, you may be sure, hoping it was meant for me, to grab the thing before any one else could appear and lay hands ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... the rest of the evenin' she confines her remarks to Auntie, cuttin' loose with the sarcasm at every openin' and now and then tossin' an explosive gas bomb at us over Auntie's shoulder. Nothing anyone could grab up and hurl back at her, you know. It's all shootin' from ambush. Some keen tongue she has, take it from me. At 9:30 I backed out under fire, leavin' Vee with her ears pinked up and a smolderin' glow in them ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford

... sake, search my cards—my cards—my cards," Thompson had scrawled across the three-cornered envelope flap Macartney's grab had left in my hand: and, knowing Thompson, it was pitiful. He was the sort who must have been crazy indeed before he spoke of the Almighty and cards in the ...
— The La Chance Mine Mystery • Susan Carleton Jones

... become a caldron of seething rage. His hand actually itched to grab his gun and teach Larkin a lesson. But his position as chairman of the gathering prevented this, although he knew that plains gossip was being made with every word spoken. Among the cowmen about him were some whose ill success ...
— The Free Range • Francis William Sullivan

... bluff him and you can't beat his system," continued the Tennessee Shad. "If you guess don't hesitate; jump at it. The only thing you can do is to wait for his jokes, and then grab the desk and weep for salvation—it's his one ...
— The Varmint • Owen Johnson

... now, it isn't as bad as that," responded Ned. "Don't you bother. I'll get you elected before Class Day, Jerry. Grab your skates and come ...
— The New Boy at Hilltop • Ralph Henry Barbour

... the woodchuck's hole was, for she had looked at it curiously many times; so she approached it carefully and found the trap set just in front of the hole. If the woodchuck stepped on it, when he came out, it would grab his leg and hold him fast; and there was a chain fastened to the trap, and also to a stout post driven into the ground, so that when the woodchuck was caught he couldn't run away ...
— Twinkle and Chubbins - Their Astonishing Adventures in Nature-Fairyland • L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

... nerve," Willie replied. "The quickest way for you to get nerve is to grab hold here ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various

... side. Roberts encouraged Dinsmore, riding knee to knee with him. "Just a little way now. Stick it out.... We're right close to the bank.... Grab the ...
— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine

... fag-paper an' a thread o' yaller baccy. 'E's makin' a bloomin' needle," and with a sudden grab he possessed himself of the pouch, papers, and finished product of ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren

... object to. It's nature," retorted Mavis, who inwardly smiled to see how the Puritanical-minded young woman, who had looked askance at Jill's appearance, did not hesitate to grab the girl's ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte

... Jones," the Project Officer interrupted. "The draft has never been abolished; we can grab anyone you put your finger on! ...
— Master of None • Lloyd Neil Goble

... Miss Greeby, feeling fear for the first time, and she tried to grab the car for the purpose ...
— Red Money • Fergus Hume

... mad and beat it out to get first grab at the plunder; and just as Cousin Egbert thinks he now knows the worst, in comes the girls that had the booths, bringing all the chips Buck Devine had paid 'em—two hundred and seventy-eight dollars' worth that Egbert has to dig down for after he ...
— Somewhere in Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... myself from the saddle in token of surrender. The action being rightly interpreted, the men held their fire, and as my next thought was the King's pass I reached under my coat-skirt for the document, but this motion being taken as a grab for my pistol, the whole lot of them—some ten in number—again aimed at me, and with such loud demands for surrender that I threw up my hands and ran into their ranks. The officer of the guard then coming up, examined my credentials, and seeing that they ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan

... rebellions,—no, ma'am," said Quick-to-Grab, "but deliverance from oppression. Why are the cats of the country lean and lazy and covered with ashes? It is because the cat that goes outside the house in the sunlight, to hunt or to play, is made to suffer with the ...
— The King of Ireland's Son • Padraic Colum

... called several voices; and that worthy proceeded to put on the table some figs, cakes, oranges, and four black bottles of wine. There was a general grab for these dainties, and one boy shouted, "I ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... Clemmie. A drowning man is willing to grab the first straw he sees. Listen to me, Clemmie," he pleaded, as she ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper

... across the road and stood by the fence as I came along. I remembered her story of the man who found the gold, and I thought I'd see whether I could have such luck, so I ran to the black thing and made a grab—and—it was a skunk! Well,"—after the laughter died down—"I didn't get any gold, but I got something! I yelled, and the girl I started to call on heard me and come to the door. I hadn't any better sense than to go up to her. But before I could explain, the skunk's weapon told the ...
— Amanda - A Daughter of the Mennonites • Anna Balmer Myers

... turned at once to Alice Gaddesden and proposed a round game. He played it with much more spirit than usual, and Desmond's antics in 'Animal Grab' put all ...
— Elizabeth's Campaign • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... kind of fireworks I carry concealed on my person. Or, just lag a little bit on me, and you'll see the same thing. Men, do you realize that there's foul play afoot out on the retaining wall? We've got to go out there in time to stop anything more happening. Now, you've got your shoes on; grab the rest of your clothing and hustle it on as we make for the ...
— The Young Engineers on the Gulf - The Dread Mystery of the Million Dollar Breakwater • H. Irving Hancock

... can see as clearly through a ladder as almost any body in the Senate, suggested that there were no such Quakers, and that he didn't believe there were any such Shawnees. It was an evident little "land-grab," got up by some of Mr. MORTON'S constituents, and the Quakers were hypothecated to promote it. He did not object to Quakers occupying lands, but he did object to a Christianized Shawnee. He had found that a converted Shawnee would steal considerably ...
— Punchinello, Vol.1, No. 4, April 23, 1870 • Various

... agrees to give he wants to grab! Mouth wide open to gobble down my gold! Holds up a bit of bread in one hand and has a stone in the other! I don't trust one of these rich fellows when he's so monstrous civil to a poor man. They ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... satisfied: first, the priests, because they were protected from persecution; second, the merchants, because they could do business without fearing the "we-grab-it-all" of the law; and finally the nobles, because the people were forbidden to put them to death, as they had formerly had ...
— Folk-Tales of Napoleon - The Napoleon of the People; Napoleonder • Honore de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof

... got your fencing set up around it, why, there ain't a deal left outside that's worth corrallin'. I'd say it's only the folk who fancy the foolish house need to try an' buy a big pot on a pair o' deuces. If you stand on a 'royal' you can grab most anything. I got this thing figgered to a cent. When we're through there's those among us going to make home with a ...
— The Triumph of John Kars - A Story of the Yukon • Ridgwell Cullum

... on his back and grab that vision by the tail would have to be moderately active. If he succeeded, however, it would be a question of the sixteenth part of a second only, whether he had his arms jerked out by the roots and scattered ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... Numisia made a horrified grab at Brinnaria and missed her. Brinnaria gave her a push; Numisia slipped, fell her length on the floor, struck her head and either ...
— The Unwilling Vestal • Edward Lucas White

... up at the giant Hands with their blazing rings, as she had looked at first, half admiring, half awed. Their gesture now seemed greedy. They were trying to "grab the whole sky," as the lion tamer said. Rather would one hurry to escape from under them, and go where the Hands of Peter ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson

... and sucked upon it. "Must be some lay, of course. I'll go up to the bank and find out what I can, but I don't think that young feller, Hicks, is in on it. I've been in the game for forty years, and if I'm a judge, he's no 'tec. Fool kid spendin' more'n he earns and out for what coin he can grab. I'll look up that landlady of his, too, Mame; and if he's on the level there, and at ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... little over twenty-five hundred dollars a month. (Prolonged applause.) I have invested my money in recent years in what I call 'grip-sack' securities, so that if there should be any little unpleasantness among the races, I can go to my safe and grab that grip-sack. (Prolonged laughter and applause.) You see if there should ever be any friction or trouble, I can grab my grip-sack, jump into a powerful machine, and come up here around Philadelphia, 'The City of Brotherly Love' or over here in Canada, and I can sit down ...
— Booker T. Washington - Builder of a Civilization • Emmett J. Scott and Lyman Beecher Stowe

... magnificent and famous. A host of laughing children bestrode the animals, bending forward like charging cavalrymen, and shaking reins and whooping in glee. At intervals they leaned out perilously to clutch at iron rings that were tendered to them by a long wooden arm. At the intense moment before the swift grab for the rings one could see their little nervous bodies quiver with eagerness; the laughter rang shrill and excited. Down in the long rows of benches, crowds of people sat watching the game, while occasionally a father might arise and go near to shout encouragement, cautionary ...
— Men, Women, and Boats • Stephen Crane

... a deep whisper; "and don't muddle your brains with any more of that Pharaoh. You'll need all your strength to grab him." ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth

... out with an even thousand, I adjusted the size of her last bet. When I won it, I pulled my chips off the table, which Sniffles didn't resist. She used the lull to grab a handful of sandwiches from another waiter's tray. A gambler at the far end of the table came out, calling loudly to the dice. The cubes made the length of the table, bounced off the rail and came to a stop dead center, between me and the three ...
— Vigorish • Gordon Randall Garrett

... vay vid the vorld," the fellow said, putting one hand to his eyes as though overcome by the unexpected interview; "a covey tries to be honest, and get a honest livin', but up comes somebody vot has been concerned vid him in the grab line, and insists upon being acquainted. I'll leave this 'ere country, ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... pistol," he continued. "You don't have to hold the gun on the target with the hand you shoot with. The mount control, in your other hand, does that. As soon as the cross hairs touch the target, just grab the trigger as though it was a million sols getting away from you. Well, sixteen thousand; that's what a monster's worth now, Murell prices. Jerking won't have the least ...
— Four-Day Planet • Henry Beam Piper

... not time to ponder over the efficiency of James Holden's operations. It was time for Paul Brennan to cope, and it seemed sensible to face the fact that Paul Brennan alone could not plot the illegal grab of the Holden Educator and at the same time masquerade as the deeply-concerned loving guardian. He could label James Holden's little group as an organization, and if he was to combat this organization he ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith

... a hesitating zig-zag movement in his direction. He made a grab as she came within reach, placed her on his knee, and pushed a bit of sugar into the month opened for ...
— Bluebell - A Novel • Mrs. George Croft Huddleston

... it's pitiful—heartrending, you must admit it, that, on the very eve of his marriage, he was such a fool as to throw off the mask. And yet at bottom it's quite logical; it's Lupin coming out through Charmerace. He had to grab at the dowry at the risk of losing the girl," said Guerchard, in a reflective tone; but his eyes were intent on the face of ...
— Arsene Lupin • Edgar Jepson

... gethered in most of her husbands afore Fiddy was old enough to hev her finger in the pie; but she cut her eye-teeth early, Fiddy did, 'n' there wa'n't no kind of a feller come to set up with the widder but she 'd everlastin'ly grab him, if she hed any use fer him, 'n' then there 'd be Hail Columby, I tell yer. But Dixie, he was 's blind 's a bat 'n' deef 's a post. He could n't see nothin' but Fiddy, 'n' he couldn't see ...
— The Village Watch-Tower • (AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin

... also watches for the unwary at night. His face is soft and smiling as the face of a Buddha, but he has a hideous eye in the summit of his shaven pate, which can only be seen when seeing it does no good. The Mitsu-me-Nyudo made a grab at Kinjuro, and startled him almost as much as the Tanuki-Bozu ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn

... substantial things, and it was not until the days of the Second Empire that Napoleon III, looking east and west, again took up the question. Little by little the French strengthened their hold upon the Indo-China peninsula, and the final contest came in the eighties, a part of the universal game of grab then going on in Africa and Asia. Although China gave up her claim to the territory a quarter of a century ago, it took many years longer to pacify the country, and there is still something to be done. The cost in men and money has been very great, and ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall

... storm see the cloudy ridges catch fire horizontally. It means that the enemy have mounted machine guns on the summit we have just abandoned, and that the place where we are is being hacked by the knives of bullets. On all sides soldiers wheel and rattle down with curses, sighs and cries. We grab and hang on to each other, jostling ...
— Light • Henri Barbusse

... about as much sense spending their pile, too. You should have heard dad tell about his pals in the eighties that struck it rich in the gold mines. One bought up every grocery store in town and instituted a huge free grab-bag for the populace; and another dropped his hundred thousand in the dice box before it was a week old. I wonder what those cousins of ...
— Oh, Money! Money! • Eleanor Hodgman Porter

... Jackson would never let on but what he was satisfied, and hadn't expected nothing else—and the bets being doubled and doubled on the other side all the time, till the money was all up; and then all of a sudden he would grab that other dog jest by the j'int of his hind leg and freeze to it—not chaw, you understand, but only jest grip and hang on till they throwed up the sponge, if it was a year. Smiley always come out winner on that pup, till he harnessed a dog once that didn't have no hind legs, because they'd ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various

... and so excited was he that he failed to give the signal. Throwing open the door, he rushed into the room, and directing the flashlight directly into the eyes of the man, partially blinded him. At the same moment he made a grab for the paper, but succeeded only in getting a part of it, one piece remaining in the hands ...
— The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers • Claude A. Labelle

... Titan roared aloud: "No; get out. Think I'm a-going to give you a chance to grab my money now? Let me die and go to hell ...
— The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories • Alice Dunbar

... of city life without money occurred to him in threatening procession. There was the ghastly, stinking crush of the subway—the car cards thrusting themselves at one, leering out like dull bores who grab your arm with another story; the querulous worry as to whether some one isn't leaning on you; a man deciding not to give his seat to a woman, hating her for it; the woman hating him for not doing it; at worst a squalid phantasmagoria of breath, ...
— This Side of Paradise • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... much amused by this. But the next moment the wheels on one side of the car jumped high over a clod of hard earth, and daddy had to grab quick at Mun Bun or he might have been jounced completely ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's • Laura Lee Hope

... were cupped round the lighted match. He lifted it to the end of the cigarette. He sucked in his breath and—a voice whispered: "Drop that match an' grab yore ears." ...
— The Heart of the Range • William Patterson White

... one to walk on a greased pole," said George soberly. "You wouldn't take much space and if you could once get a footing you could reach forward almost to the end and grab the cup." ...
— Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motorboat • Ross Kay

... handling-machine, a thing like an oversized contragravity-tank, with a bull-dozer-blade, a stubby derrick-boom instead of a gun, and jointed, claw-tipped, arms at the sides. The smaller dots grew into personal armor—egg-shaped things that sprouted arms and grab-hooks and pushers in all directions. The man with the grizzled beard began talking rapidly into his hand-phone, then hung it up. There was a series of bumps, and the armor-tender, weightless on contragravity, shook as the handling-machine ...
— Ullr Uprising • Henry Beam Piper

... days, as formerly was necessary in order to reach Ober-Ammergau, there are now two trains a day which land tourists for the Passion Play, and among them may appear some American theatrical manager who, finding that John Zwink of Ober-Ammergau impersonates the spirit of grab and cheat and insincerity better than any one who treads the American stage, and only received for his wonderful histrionic ability what equals forty-five pounds sterling for ten years, may offer him five times as much compensation for one ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage

... a world!—What know you of knowledge and power, of beauty and light and love? What do you dream of these things? The end of man as you know it is to fight and struggle like a maniac, and grab for his own all that he can lay his claws upon. And what is your social ideal—but to lavish, each man upon himself, all that he can lavish before he dies? And whom do you honor save him who succeeds in that? And whom do you scorn ...
— The Journal of Arthur Stirling - "The Valley of the Shadow" • Upton Sinclair

... 'get a taxi and take me to the hospital.' I lost the use of my legs on the steps and they had to carry me. In this attack I was more or less conscious all through it." What were you thinking of in the taxi, I asked. "I don't know. I felt as if I wanted to jump at something and grab something." Can you not remember what was in your mind, I continued. "Only what I've told you," he answered. Will you lie down and close your eyes and imagine yourself back in the taxi, I asked. Now tell me what you see. After a moment he said, "I see flames." What else do you see? "Nothing, ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10

... eh?" returned John resignedly. "I don't know what I'll draw out of this grab bag next," and he plunged his ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham

... I know, and I'm going to grab him. What technique, what tone, what a touch!" cried Harry, who had been assistant music critic ...
— Melomaniacs • James Huneker

... thousand expeditions after 'em in one year, an' only got hold of five thousand natives in all. That's a expedition to a man, an' I will say, Mrs. Lathrop, as it's small wonder we're taxed an' they're taxed, with some of our new fellow citizens as hard to grab as that. To my order of thinkin' it'd be wisest to let 'em chase each other for ten or twenty years first an' then when they was pretty well thinned out we could step in an' settle with the survivors; but accordin' to the man who ...
— Susan Clegg and a Man in the House • Anne Warner

... yu bet yure life! And fallers grab gun and drum and fife, And march to scrap vith dese British men. Maester Paul ban yolly brave hero den. And back in the church tower old Yohn Brenk Climb from his perch, and tak gude drenk. Val, dis ban all, Christina dear, 'Bout midnight ...
— The Norsk Nightingale - Being the Lyrics of a "Lumberyack" • William F. Kirk

... would all be over. What if he jumped too soon or too late? What if the vine proved too frail? The monkey was crouching for the leap. The branch that Piang was clinging to bent under his weight. The monkey flashed through the air, made a desperate grab, and swung out of sight. In a daze, Piang prepared to follow; breathlessly he watched for his chance. With a prayer on his lips and with a mighty effort, he sprang straight out into space. His hands closed over something small and round. ...
— The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy - A Book for Young and Old • Florence Partello Stuart

... now, an' I might 'a' known it. Wal, we won't go back empty-handed, anyhow. The young penguins ain't sech bad eatin', though the old 'uns taste some'at fishy, b'sides bein' tough as tan leather. So let's heave ahead, an' grab a few of the goslin's. But look out, or you'll get your ...
— The Land of Fire - A Tale of Adventure • Mayne Reid

... churchmen, they thronged about him transformed, become suddenly alien and hostile, a crowd of threatening ghosts, the outraged witnesses of their own humiliation. "For what are you selling us?"—they seemed to say. "Because some one, who was already overfed, must needs grab at a larger mess of pottage—and ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... gent'men come ridin' up, lookin' fer horses an' fodder an'—an' Mars' Cary—an' anything else what was layin' roun'. Yas, seh. An' des' befo' dis here gent'man come," with a bow at Morrison, "a low-lived white man took'n grab me by de th'oat—an' choke me, seh. Den ...
— The Littlest Rebel • Edward Peple

... gets awful rough water on a lake and ve get upset. Him Hugo he svim like a otter, he do, but me I svim like a stone. De shore he ban couple hundret yard off, mebbe leetle more. I hold on to de bow and Hugo he grab de stern. So he begin push for shore, svimmin' vid his feet, but dat turriple slow going, vid de canoe all under vater, yoost holdin' us up a bit, and it vos cold, awful turriple cold in dat vater. He calls to me ve can't make it dat vay, ve don't make ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... "'Hey, Mister Bud,' I say, 'if you going to send me down canyon, I want to get my things.' 'You go to hell for your things,' says he. And then I say, 'Mister Bud, I want to get my time.' And he says, 'I give you plenty time right here!' And he punch me and throw me over. Then he grab me up' again and pull me outside, and I see big automobile waiting, and I say, 'Holy Judas! I get ride in automobile! Here I am, old fellow fifty-seven years old, never been in automobile ride all my days. I think always I die and never get in automobile ride!' We go down canyon, and I look round ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair

... white bow on the portmanteau and on a trunk handle.] If Auntie Tillman sees 'em, I'll bet she'll grab 'em off. She'll ...
— The Girl with the Green Eyes - A Play in Four Acts • Clyde Fitch

... will say I had all my housework done and was thinking what to get for supper. I got in with Hiram, and made him drive me to the depot. I knew I just had time to get the three-thirty-seven train. And I got it. And me with only such things as I could grab up," she added, with a glance at her attire, which, though old fashioned, ...
— The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale • Laura Lee Hope

... struggle—terrific and horrible to see! The devil shrieked and howled; he scratched and bit; while Crowbar, dumb and purple in the face, gave telling blows with his fists. He could not strike the devil's head, because of the horns, and he could not grab his body, because it was so sleek and slimy. At length the devil's strength gave out. Crowbar siezed him by the throat, threw him on his back, put a knee upon his breast, and, with the cane in his right hand, gave him a blow between the horns that split his head in ...
— The California Birthday Book • Various

... object that I knew at once was a clincher-built boat. I belonged to this boat, and I now recollected that she had been towing astern. Until that instant I had not thought of her, but thus was I led in the dark to the best possible means of saving my life. I made a grab at the gunwale, and caught it in the stern-sheets. Had I swum another yard, I should have passed the boat, and missed her altogether! I got in without any difficulty, being ...
— Ned Myers • James Fenimore Cooper

... is the worst," he muttered, as she evinced her intention of laying hands on his cramp and rubbing it out. "But you'd better keep away. I've had cramps before, and I know I'm liable to grab you ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London

... fellows would rush out and trip up the constable and hold him down till Pony got safe across. He ought to hollo, when he was across, and that would let them know that he was safe and they would be ready to let the constable up, and begin to run before he could grab them. ...
— The Flight of Pony Baker - A Boy's Town Story • W. D. Howells

... Grab-all, n. a kind of net used for marine fishing near the shore. It is moored to a piece of floating wood, and by the Tasmanian Government regulations must have a ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... at the top of my voice, but it did not stop him. Just above me was a ledge. I climbed up to it, and there waited the approach of the bear. The ground above was very steep and slippery. On he came, faster and faster. My shouts had enraged him, and he was eager to have a grab at me. I ran up a little way higher, and then turned as if I would spring back into the water. He was afraid he should lose me, and forgetting his previous caution, he ...
— Dick Onslow - Among the Redskins • W.H.G. Kingston

... popilation of Wagtail Bay. Why, there's not two of ye who could hit the big shed at sixty paces, an' all the fresh meat as you've brought in yet has bin the result o' chance. Now look 'ee here, Stubbs, a notion has entered my head, an' when a notion does that, I usually grab that notion an' hold 'im a fast prisoner until I've made somethin' useful an' ship-shape of 'im. If it works properly we'll soon have somethin' better to eat than fish, an' more substantial than rabbits, ducks, ...
— The Crew of the Water Wagtail • R.M. Ballantyne

... firmly stamped out than has been done up to now! What is it you do? You make the miners discontented, presumptuous; you stir them up, embitter them, make them rebellious, disobedient, wretched! Then you delude them with promises of mountains of gold, and, in the meantime, grab out of their pockets the few pennies that ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... from head to heel with no more clothes on than the law pervided fur, yipping loud and shaking a big spear and rolling my eyes, and Watty would come rushing after me firing his revolver. I would make fur the doctor and draw my spear back to jab it clean through him, and Watty would grab my arm. And the doctor would whirl round and they would wrastle me to the ground and I would be handcuffed and dragged back into the tent, still howling and struggling to break loose. On the inside my part of the show was to ...
— Danny's Own Story • Don Marquis

... last he made his way to the very edge of the water and poised himself on a stone, with his legs well tucked in for a long leap and a bold flight to the other side of the river. It was my final opportunity. I made a desperate grab at it and ...
— Fisherman's Luck • Henry van Dyke

... South American port and give us an opportunity to get her back again. On the other hand, if the Germans delay their departure from the Pacific, the British will surely get wind of the Narcissus waiting at Montevideo; and when she comes out they'll just naturally grab her." ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne

... my tail, Br'er Fox," says Br'er Tarrypin, and with that he uncurl his tail from under his shell, and no sooner did he do that than Br'er Fox grab ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... Nikhil gets on to metaphor, there is no hope of making him see that he is merely dealing with words, not with realities. Well, well, let him be happy with his metaphors. We are the flesh-eaters of the world; we have teeth and nails; we pursue and grab and tear. We are not satisfied with chewing in the evening the cud of the grass we have eaten in the morning. Anyhow, we cannot allow your metaphor-mongers to bar the door to our sustenance. In that case we shall simply steal or rob, for we ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore

... of the kind before and could not realize now that it was happening. Rodney advanced, never once relaxing the look in which he seemed to hold his enemy as in a vise. Simpson was like a man bewitched. Once, twice, he made a grab for his revolver, but his right hand seemed to have lost power to heed the bidding of his will. Rodney, now well towards the centre of the room, waited, with a suggestion of ceremony, for Simpson to get ...
— Judith Of The Plains • Marie Manning

... how it happened. Of course, as usual when there's mischief, a human being is mixed up in it. We spiders are careful and look what we're doing, but human beings are careless, they grab you sometimes as though you were a piece of ...
— The Adventures of Maya the Bee • Waldemar Bonsels

... thieving done. Each dog should have had his own "whack," and none have been molested. But with all his genuine love of order and discipline, Jan was no magician. He could not possibly apportion out a scattered refuse-heap. He had necessarily to grab a share for himself; and, as was inevitable, the weaker members of the team went short, ...
— Jan - A Dog and a Romance • A. J. Dawson

... mental telepathy and extra sensory perception, crumbs do not erase other crumbs. They just grab some citizen and put him in a box until he is ready to do their ...
— Stop Look and Dig • George O. Smith

... slow jaw motion of a ruminating steer, and he looked straight ahead between the ears of the nigh horse, going through mental processes of a certain sort. "Now 't I think of it, I wish I'd grabbed in with a question to young Latisan. But he doesn't give anybody much of a chance to grab in when he's talking. Still, I'd have liked to ask him something." He maundered on in ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day

... dim hallway. As he reached the outside steps the youth who had first accosted him turned, and made a grab ...
— Baseball Joe in the Big League - or, A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggles • Lester Chadwick

... call the Angel Gabriel to witness, they're going to grab your claim. Them government officials is the crookedest bunch that ever made fuel for hell-fire. You won't get a square deal; they're going to get the fat anyhow. They've got the best claims spotted, an' men posted to jump them at the ...
— The Trail of '98 - A Northland Romance • Robert W. Service

... and tremendous that Greenbrier's first impulse was to lie down and grab a root. And then he remembered that the disturbance was human, and not elemental; and he backed out of it with a ...
— Strictly Business • O. Henry

... more, and then could not resist the temptation to grab Jessie about the waist and start on a mad dance through the library, the hallway, the dining-room, and the living room of the mansion. Mrs. Wadsworth looked on ...
— Dave Porter and His Double - The Disapperarance of the Basswood Fortune • Edward Stratemeyer

... bookcase. Her grandmother brought it out from England and Miss Lavendar was awful choice of it. I was dusting it just as careful, Miss Shirley, ma'am, and it slipped out, so fashion, afore I could grab holt of it, and bruk into about forty millyun pieces. I tell you I was sorry and scared. I thought Miss Lavendar would scold me awful, ma'am; and I'd ruther she had than take it the way she did. She just come in and hardly looked at it and said, 'It's no ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... him from the advancing Italian. Faintly to his ears came the sound of creaking boards behind him. Perhaps Mascola's men were pressing in from the rear. He dared not look to see. His eyes were held by Mascola's crooked arm. That was what he must grab and break. ...
— El Diablo • Brayton Norton

... not from battle) seized by the shoulder The mother of Grendel; then mighty in struggle Swung he his enemy, since his anger was kindled, That she fell to the floor. With furious grapple She gave him requital early thereafter, And stretched out to grab him; the strongest of warriors Faint-mooded stumbled, till he fell in his traces, Foot-going champion. Then she sat on the hall-guest And wielded her war-knife wide-bladed, flashing, For her son would take vengeance, her one only bairn, ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... of you," Dick Prescott went on, earnestly. "If we come across that fellow, don't either of you make a grab at him. Just let me handle him—-and I'll do it by talking alone. We mustn't use ...
— The High School Boys in Summer Camp • H. Irving Hancock

... "Grab up a horse blanket!" he called to Vincent. There were several scattered about the barn, and ...
— The Young Firemen of Lakeville - or, Herbert Dare's Pluck • Frank V. Webster

... Y., Special Despatch: It is reported on high authority that State Senator Grab has received a half million dollars, to be distributed among the various senators and assemblymen, for the purpose of securing their votes in exchange for certain legislative laws that will favor the Gas Trust in its iniquitous squeeze of the people for higher rates. Several senators ...
— Born Again • Alfred Lawson

... "What do you think of that, Laura," he clapped down his big hand upon his chair arm, "a whole half million—at one grab? Maybe they'll say down there in La Salle Street now that I don't know wheat. Why, Sam—that's Gretry my broker, Mr. Corthell, of Gretry, Converse & Co.—Sam said to me Laura, to-night, he said, 'J.,'—they call me 'J.' down there, ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris

... heavily and the sky is murky and much darker than the earth. When the storm is at its height, the snow must search and search and search even through the double windows with which the houses are protected. It must rest upon the frames of the pictures of saints, and of the sister's "grab," and of the last hours of Count Ugolino, which adorn the walls of the parlour. No wonder there is a S. Maria della Neve—a "St. Mary of the Snow"; but I do wonder that she has ...
— Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino • Samuel Butler

... with that temptation. For when an Englishman, sane or insane, is once pushed behind his back into a madhouse, those relatives who have hidden him from the public eye, i.e., from the eye of justice, can grab hold of his money behind his back, as they certified away his wits behind his back, and can administer it in the dark, and embezzle it, chanting "But for us the 'dear deranged' would waste it." Nor do the monstrous enactments which confer this unconstitutional ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... so. He saw, through the trees, where the trail turned, and gliding between the bushes, he reached the path ahead of the donkey that was coming down it full speed. Bart braced his feet apart and stood ready to grab the beast. ...
— Frank Roscoe's Secret • Allen Chapman

... predecessors, was accepting and following one central principle: expand, grab and keep. The application of this principle took the form of an axiom of public and private life: might makes right; let him take who has the power; let him ...
— Civilization and Beyond - Learning From History • Scott Nearing

... that the Negro was primarily to blame for the corruption of the day. Here again it is well to recall the tendencies of the period. The decade succeeding the war was throughout the country one of unparalleled political corruption. The Tweed ring, the Credit Mobilier, and the "salary grab" were only some of the more outstanding signs of the times. In the South the Negroes were not the real leaders in corruption; they simply followed the men who they supposed were their friends. Surely in the face of such facts as these it is not just to fix ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... connection with Chicago gas, his venturesome, if unsuccessful effort to enter Chicago society, his self-acknowledged Philadelphia record, rendered the sensitive cohorts of the ultra-conservative exceedingly fearful. In Schryhart's Chronicle appeared a news column which was headed, "Plain Grab of City Tunnel Proposed." It was a very truculent statement, and irritated Cowperwood greatly. The Press (Mr. Haguenin's paper), on the other hand, was most cordial to the idea of the loop, while appearing to be ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser

... I'll be aboard when he gets there. If he comes aboard, I'll grab him there. If he doesn't I'll jump to the deck of the submarine after him and tumble him overboard. I'll trust to you to keep the submarine occupied and to ...
— The Boy Allies with the Victorious Fleets - The Fall of the German Navy • Robert L. Drake

... members of the House of Representatives. The increase for Congressmen was made retroactive, so that each of them would receive $5,000 for the two years just past. To a country whose fears and suspicions had been aroused by the Credit Mobilier scandal, the "salary grab" and the "back pay steal" were fresh indications that corruption was entrenched in Washington. Senators and Representatives began at once to hear from their constituencies. Many of them returned the increase to the treasury and when the next session ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... Kaiser wohl ueber mein Grab, Viel' Schwerter klirren und blitzen; Dann steig' ich gewaffnet hervor aus mein Grab,— Den Kaiser, den Kaiser ...
— The Tree of Heaven • May Sinclair

... I don't want to go back now if I can help it, because a party of bores are being shown round in that direction, awful people I've escaped from. You don't know them, so they can't hurt you. Will you, like a dear chap, cut off and grab the book? It's on the table; you can't miss ...
— Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'Malley • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... posse shakes Ogden and wakes him up. And then he jumps up, and two more of the reward-hunters grab him. Ogden was mighty tough with all his slimness, and he gives 'em as neat a single-footed tussle against odds as I ...
— Options • O. Henry

... Darkovans gasped. I knew I could have been mobbed. But with a mixed bag of men, I had to grab leadership quick or be relegated to nowhere. I didn't give Regis Hastur a chance to answer that, either; I said, "Come back here. I want to talk ...
— The Planet Savers • Marion Zimmer Bradley

... cried, "an you try me too far, I shall withdraw my favor altogether, sir. My cheeks burn still when I think what might have happened at the ball the other night, when you so far forgot yourself as to grab at me like a wild Indian. 'Twas well I ...
— A Soldier of Virginia • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... I? He was as weak as a cat when I got to him, but he had sense enough not to grab me. He knows how to swim all right, but something is the matter with his ...
— Frank and Andy Afloat - The Cave on the Island • Vance Barnum

... writ in both hands about a yard and a half from Gerard's eye; and at the same moment the large constable suddenly pinned him; both officers were on tenterhooks lest the prisoner should grab the document, to which they ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... paused in her stitch. "That's so, Simon; Hannah Levin should grab for herself a man like Albert Hamburger. She should fall into the human-hair Hamburger family, a stick like her! At fish-market when he lived down-town each Friday morning I used to meet old man Levin, and I should say his knees were worse ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst

... our petty rights here, And our potty dignity there; We make no allowance for others, They make no allowance for us; We catch hold of them by the ear, They grab hold of us by the hair The result is a bit of a muddle That ends in a ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... awoke him, and on looking round he caught sight of the fin of the shark gliding by a few feet off. The monster's eye was turned up towards him with a wicked leer, and he believed that in another instant the savage creature would have made a grab at the raft. His pole was brought into requisition, and the rapid blows he gave with it on the water soon made the monster keep at a respectful distance. He would not shout out, ...
— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston

... Peer's advice is always good, So doubtless they will grab it,— But no one will be happier than ...
— Punch, or The London Charivari, Volume 101, October 31, 1891 • Various

... your minds what to do. Grab the gun, and put your man down backward. I'm almost ashamed of the game, it's so easy. Look at these boobies by me. They are like children. No muscle. The fellows at the end won't dare to shoot for fear ...
— The Dodge Club - or, Italy in 1859 • James De Mille

... be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self, so to have somewhat left to give, instead of being always prompt to grab."—Emerson. ...
— Reform Cookery Book (4th edition) - Up-To-Date Health Cookery for the Twentieth Century. • Mrs. Mill

... He had joined the League. He was its chief, and his defection might mean its disintegration at the very time when it needed all its strength to fight the land cases. More than a mere deal in bad politics was involved. There was the land grab. His withdrawal from an unholy cause would mean the weakening, perhaps the collapse, of another cause that he believed to be righteous as truth itself. He was hopelessly caught in the mesh. Wrong seemed indissolubly knitted into the texture ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris

... he cried. "And I'll lay myself out to get that ring. I haven't begun to try the schemes I have in my head. I will meet you here to-morrow night at about this time, and I'll do my best to have the ring. Only, if I haven't got it, I want you to promise not to jump on me and grab me ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

... to play spin de plate an it come my turn fust thing. I spin it an call out 'Mister Green!' He jumps to de middle o' de ring to grab de plate an 'Bang'—bout four guns go off all at oncet, an Mister Green fall to de floor plum dead shot through ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Florida Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... feet in the atmosphere, and with a hoop and a beller I took to my heels. I run and hollered like the devil was after me, and shore enuf he was. His long legs gained on me at every jump, but just as he was about to grab me I made a double on him, and got a fresh start. I was aktiv as a cat, and so we had it over fences, thru the woods, and round the meetin' house, and all the boys was standin' on skool house hill a hollerin', "Go it, my Bill—go it, my Bill." As good luck would have it there was ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IX (of X) • Various

... to worry, stopped eating, and had their ears pricked up a trying to look over the ledge towards the river, we heard a sharp firing down on the Trail, which didn't appear to be more than a hundred yards off. You ought to seen us grab our rifles sudden, and run out from behind them rocks, where we was a camping, so comfortable-like, and just going to light our pipes for a good smoke. It didn't take us no time to get down on to the Trail, where we seen a Mexican bull train, ...
— The Old Santa Fe Trail - The Story of a Great Highway • Henry Inman

... Guru, for she had done that on the night of the Spanish quartette; it was rather that she meant to make sure that there would by no possibility be anything to forgive concerning her conduct with regard to the Princess. Lucia could not grab her and so call Daisy's powers of forgiveness into play again, if she never came near her, and Daisy meant to take proper precautions that she should not come near her. Accordingly Georgie and Piggy were asked ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson

... would infallibly hand them over to the clutches of hungry and rapacious officials. The counters over which all business is transacted are from six to eight feet high, strongly made, and of such a nature that to scale them would be a very difficult matter, and to grab anything with the view of making a bolt for the street utterly and entirely impossible. In a Chinese city, where there is no police force to look after the safety of life and property, and where everybody prefers to let a thief pass ...
— Chinese Sketches • Herbert A. Giles

... Mrs Richards shone with a hospitable reply, and Miss Tox, accepting the proffered chair, and grab fully recognising Mr Toodle on her way to it, untied her bonnet strings, and said that in the first place she must beg the dear children, one and all, to come ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... "Grab those dogs! They'll strangle each other," cried Darragh quickly. "That's it — unleash them, Jack, and let them go!" — he was struggling with the ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert Chambers

... jumping up, a hurried buckling up of belts, a grab for kits and guns, and an unceremonious cut for the gate. I heard a volley from the officer. I marked a serious effort on the part of the men to keep the smiles off their faces as they hurriedly got their kits on their backs and their guns on their shoulders, and, rigidly ...
— A Hilltop on the Marne • Mildred Aldrich

... keep on dancing, and talk impudently into the bargain! Stop it this minute! It'll be so much the worse for you; I'll grab you by the skirt, and tear off ...
— Plays • Alexander Ostrovsky

... primitive: she had once, during the portion of his time at Cocker's that had overlapped her own, seen him collar a drunken soldier, a big violent man who, having come in with a mate to get a postal-order cashed, had made a grab at the money before his friend could reach it and had so determined, among the hams and cheeses and the lodgers from Thrupp's, immediate and alarming reprisals, a scene of scandal and consternation. Mr. Buckton and the counter-clerk had crouched within the cage, but ...
— In the Cage • Henry James

... at his big, oak desk but, a signal honor, he got up and came half across the room to grab Ben's hand and shake it. "Got the full report, son. Checked the tapes already. That's selling, boy! I'm proud of you. Tell you what, Ben. Instead of waiting for a sales slack, I'm going to move you and that sweet little wife of yours right into a spanking new, ...
— The Real Hard Sell • William W Stuart

... Andy made one grab for him, prostrate on the planks now, missed, rolled along, and dropped squarely over the inner edge of the walk five feet down into the ...
— Andy the Acrobat • Peter T. Harkness



Words linked to "Grab" :   fair catch, move, touching, snaffle, grab bag, reception, interlock, snap, nett, fascinate, stop, catch, net, take hold of, prehend, interception, intrigue, shoestring catch, clutch, hog, intercept



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