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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



... pull myself up to the ledge on which it grew. I confess it needed all my courage, for I did not know but that the tree might be loose, and that it and I might go rattling down four hundred feet. It was my only hope, however, so I set my teeth, and wriggling up a few inches, made a grab at it. Thank God it held, and with a great effort I pulled my shoulder over the ledge, ...
— Prester John • John Buchan

... saddle that looks t'me like a man, by cripes! All I can see is a smooth-skinned, slippery vermin I'd hate to name a snake after, that crawls around in the dark and lets cheap rough-necks do all his dirty work. I've saw dogs sneak up and grab a man behind, but most always they let out a growl or two first. And even a rattler is square enough to buzz at yuh and give yuh a chanc't to side-step him. Honest to grandma, I don't hardly know what kinda reptyle y'are. I hate to insult any of 'em, by cripes, by namin' yuh after ...
— Flying U Ranch • B. M. Bower

... now," declared Eli, bending down to examine the trap again; "I didn't know there was so much to the pesky business—had an idea all you had to do was to find where the animals held out, stick a trap there, and go out the next day and grab your fur." ...
— Canoe Mates in Canada - Three Boys Afloat on the Saskatchewan • St. George Rathborne

... the hat with her umbrella. The W.S. was up to it. He stooped to reach it—a quick grab and he had ...
— The Prodigal Father • J. Storer Clouston

... unassisted, and several times she had felled poor Winslow to the earth when he rashly adventured to stop her. Captain Carr had a peculiar, graceful fling of the arm, catching the saddle-bar with one hand while he steadied the handles with the other. He did not hesitate in the least to grab Lorania's belt if necessary. But poor modest Winslow, who fell upon the wheel and dared not touch the hem of a lady's bicycle skirt, was as one in the path of a cyclone, and appeared daily in a fresh ...
— Different Girls • Various

... provoked a shout of laughter from a knot of Arabs who had gathered to watch the usual evening eccentricities of the chestnut. The French servant, coming from behind the tent, stopped to speak to the man as he picked himself up and made a grab at the horse's head, and then turned to ...
— The Sheik - A Novel • E. M. Hull

... his best, and substituting Nick. It would raise a howl, to be sure. But, Thad, if the time should ever come when we're up against a hard proposition, with defeat staring us in the face, and one of our team was injured, I'd grab at Nick like a drowning man does at a ...
— The Chums of Scranton High at Ice Hockey • Donald Ferguson

... the people round him that makes the comic man so generous. Everybody is generous on the stage. They are giving away their purses all day long; that is the regulation "tip" on the stage—one's purse. The moment you hear a tale of woe, you grab it out of your pocket, slap it in to the woe-er's palm, grip his hand, dash away a tear, and exit; you don't even leave yourself a 'bus fare home. You walk back ...
— Stage-Land • Jerome K. Jerome

... it at once, and wading in made a grab at it; he got hold of it easily enough, but the lamb—a good sized one—struggled, and in the effort to retain his hold Stafford's feet slipped and he went headfirst into a deep pool. He was submerged for a second only, and when he came ...
— At Love's Cost • Charles Garvice

... Three-Eyed Friar (Mitsu-me- Nyudo). The Three-Eyed Friar 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 ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn

... it with blunt candor. "Well, you see, it's like this. When he first came out here he struck a streak of hard luck and lost all he had. He was forced to go to work at anything he could get to earn money, and—you see, when a feller is down and out he's got to grab anything that offers—and so, when Dutch Pete took a liking to him and offered him a job, he just naturally ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland

... "Grab in the top drawer," Blair hissed after her; and she put a shrinking hand into the japanned box, and "grabbed" all the bills she could hold; then, not waiting to close the drawer, she fled back to Blair. Up-stairs in her room, they ...
— The Iron Woman • Margaret Deland

... 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 ...
— The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories • Alice Dunbar

... century. USNM 230322; 1958. This hand tool for harvesting grain has not changed in design for the last thousand years. The sickle has a curved blade some 22 inches long. The reaper would grab a handful of stalks and cut them with the blade. One man could cut up to an acre of grain by this method. Gift of Farmer's Museum, ...
— Agricultural Implements and Machines in the Collection of the National Museum of History and Technology • John T. Schlebecker

... does it," he muttered, hopefully, when he found himself within a couple of rods of the colt without having disturbed it in the slightest degree. "It ish as easy as nefer vos, and I will grab him in one two dree minute, and den I whips him 'cause he runs mit away, ...
— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis

... are playing for time, stay here until we can stand it no longer because of the heat. Then make a break for it. Perhaps we can take them by surprise, grab four horses and ...
— The Boy Allies in Great Peril • Clair W. Hayes

... legal knave, a lawyer who practises in an unprofessional or tricky manner. Kahn was all that—and still more. If he had been less successful, he would have been the black sheep of the overcrowded legal flock. Ideals he had none. His claws reached out to grab the pittance of the poverty-stricken client as well as the fee of the wealthy. He had risen from hospitals to police courts, coroner's court, and criminal courts, at last attaining the dignity of offices opposite an entrance to the criminal courts building, from which ...
— The Ear in the Wall • Arthur B. Reeve

... "Grab a root and pull!" Bowers urged with all the hospitality he could inject into his voice, as the guest squeezed in between the table and the sideboard. "Jest bog down in that there honey, pardner—it's something ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart

... with one, however old, that he couldn't sell for a few pence. For a minute or so he stood there, letting his sense of business get the better of his fright; then he swallowed down the last doubt sticking in his throat, walked straight up to the scarecrow, and made a grab ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... of the past few days, and partly because of the exhilaration of the fresh spring air and the fast speeding motor, the four young Maynards were in a state of hilarity. They sang and they shouted and they laughed, and often they would grab each other with affectionate squeezes from ...
— Marjorie's Maytime • Carolyn Wells

... for the scorching pain along his head was throbbing his brain dizzily, but he realized that the service repeater he had taken from the control car lay by his side, within easy reach. But, while on the verge of risking a wild grab for it, he heard a voice, speaking very softly and with ...
— Raiders Invisible • Desmond Winter Hall

... shepherds, half brigands, who are only kept from turning full-fledged freebooters by a wholesome fear of retributive justice. While I am discussing my bread and water one of these worthies saunters with assumed carelessness up behind me and makes a grab for my revolver, the butt of which he sees protruding from the holster. Although I am not exactly anticipating this movement, travelling alone among strange people makes one's faculties of self-preservation almost mechanically on the alert, and my hand reaches the revolver before his does. ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... speaking had been working his body with mysterious and violent energy; "massa! couldn't you fall dis way, an' Nadgel could kitch your hand, an' I's got my leg shoved into a hole as nuffin' 'll haul it out ob. Dere's a holler place here. If Nadgel swings you into dat, an' I only once grab you ...
— Blown to Bits - The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago • R.M. Ballantyne

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

... with are very simply worked, and easy of performance by the medium. You are usually given a seat in a circle of chairs about the front of a "cabinet" made by hanging heavy curtains across the corner of the room. If you are a stranger or one who looks or acts as though he would "grab" the "spirits," you are seated at the farthest point from the cabinet; or, if there are two rows of seats, you will be given a seat in the back ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne

... ground now. The hen had again slowed to a walk, and I was capable of no better pace. Very gradually I closed in on it. There was a high boxwood hedge in front of us. Just as I came close enough to stake my all on a single grab, the hen dived into this and struggled through in the mysterious way in which birds do get ...
— Love Among the Chickens - A Story of the Haps and Mishaps on an English Chicken Farm • P. G. Wodehouse

... attacked a tree. First, with their double-bitted axes, each drove a deep notch into the sapwood just wide enough to take the end of a two-by-six plank four or five feet long with a single grab-nail in the end,—the springboard of the Pacific coast logger, whose daily business lies among the biggest timber on God's footstool. Each then clambered up on his precarious perch, took hold of his end of the long, limber saw, and cut in to a depth of a foot or more, ...
— Big Timber - A Story of the Northwest • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... about, and I sit tight, and that lets me out. And now get this! There'll be two taxicabs outside. If there's more than two, it's the first two I'm talking about. You jump into the one at the head of the line. Cloran won't need any invitation to grab the second one and follow you. That's all! It's the last ride he'll take. It'll be our boys, and not chauffeurs, who'll be driving those cars to-night, and they've got their orders where to go. Cloran ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... Shelby, quietly, "it's a special paper that he bought for his prize drawings—it's not only expensive, but he wants the sheets uniform. You knew this, Thorpe, and yet you grab it and use ...
— The Come Back • Carolyn Wells

... uncle was chopping wood, and boy like, I went out to watch him. An old rooster kept running around the block, flapping its wings, making considerable noise. Uncle shooed him off three or four times. Finally uncle made a grab at him, caught him by the legs, whacked him down on the block and with his axe cut off his head close to his body, and then threw it out on the grass right in front of me. Was that rooster dead? I thought not. ...
— Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life • Charles Felton Pidgin

... "He must have been a grand matador from Spain," and springing up, she caught a tidy from the furniture, danced around the room with it, holding it in both hands as though bating an angry bull, and suddenly dropping it, made a grab for an imaginary ring and horn, and twisting both wrists quickly, cried out: "Did I not down ...
— The Wedge of Gold • C. C. Goodwin

... seemed like a stab going from temple to temple tired her inexpressibly. Then, too, she was hungry. Oh, if she could have a glass of hot milk such as Jane used to bring her! She really could not help crying a little. Both babies stood up by her. Violet pounding on one shoulder, Pansy making a grab at her hair that seemed to pull it ...
— A Modern Cinderella • Amanda M. Douglas

... 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

... nutty—going out in the cold that way when nothing drove her out. Dulcie made a great hit with the club this first day, having the correct Canadian toggery and being entirely fearless in the presence of a toboggan. She'd zip to the bottom, come tramping back, shooting on all six, grab a sandwich—for not a morsel of food had passed her lips since she went down the time before—and do it all over again. And every last ex-Bohemian, even Edgar Tomlinson, fighting for the chance to save her from death by ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson

... weird words pursue it—Rouge, Impair, et Passe! Like a sound borne in sleep through such dreams as encumber With haggard emotions the wild wicked slumber Of some witch when she seeks, through a nightmare, to grab at The hot hoof of the fiend, on her way ...
— Lucile • Owen Meredith

... buzzer sounded he pulled his foil from his second's startled grasp, and ran forward. Irolg had barely time to grab up his own weapon and parry Brion's first thrust. The force of his rush was so great that the guards on their weapons locked, and their bodies crashed together. Irolg looked amazed at the sudden fury of the attack—then smiled. He thought it was a last burst of energy, he knew ...
— Planet of the Damned • Harry Harrison

... to revolt she watched those who had staked on number one grab up their winnings, while the croupier raked in the Englishman's ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler

... their own interests from sharp practice? A quartet of soft-bodied mongrels who sat in upholstered office chairs while these others wallowed through six feet of snow for three weeks, living on bacon and beans, to grab a pot of gold for them! It makes my fist double up when ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... a muscle for a few seconds, then, with a sudden turn of the head, he made a grab for ...
— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert • Jessie Graham Flower

... only just in time. I came that last few yards with a rush, I give you my word! And I made a grab at the driver, thinking the best chance was to stop the conveyance at once, or if I couldn't do that, take a free passage with the rest of them. She wasn't going of her own accord, I felt sure. That villain of a lawyer struggled hard. I didn't think he'd been so good ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville

... the glorious scene dazzled the old man, and how his eyes glistened, and his fingers itched to grab at some of the wonderful things and carry them off? He knew that even one only of those flashing goblets would make him ...
— Cornwall's Wonderland • Mabel Quiller-Couch

... an irritated manufacturer. "Nothing to it at all! I can't get a good office boy any more. I can't get anybody, boy or girl, who wants to do anything but just hold down a job and grab a pay-envelope. Too much schooling! Those inventors and pioneers who came out of New England and made this country from a hunting-ground into an empire—they didn't have all this monkey-business in technical schools and trade schools. They just went to work. That's all. I say send ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine

... and thet's a fact. Look at him! He's got her. He's a pullin' of her in. Make a line, men! Make a line! Quick as thunder, and the last man grab 'em when they come ...
— Flint - His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes • Maud Wilder Goodwin

... how 'bout that Greek sponger we talked with when we dropped in at Tarpon Springs t'other day—you kinder s'pected he knew a heap more about these goin's-on than he wanted us to grab, even if we was jest s'posed to be Northern tourists, bent on havin' a fishin' spree later on when big tarpon strike in around Fort Myers—could them spongers have a hand afetchin' in bottled stuff, or ferryin' Chinks over from some ...
— Eagles of the Sky - With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes • Ambrose Newcomb

... 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 ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... land grab" was made on the 15th of January, eight days before the arrival of Sir John Colborne's successor, and while Sir Francis was actually en route for Toronto. It was thus one of Sir John's last official acts. It is said that he was with difficulty brought to accede ...
— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... dispute between North Uganda and South Uganda broke out, and within a week it looked as though the Commonwealth of Victorian Kenya, the Republic of Upper Tanganyika, and the Free and Independent Popular Monarchy of Ruanda-Urundi were all going to try to jump in and grab a piece ...
— Hail to the Chief • Gordon Randall Garrett

... dread lest it should be Captain Mackra, of whose activity and courage they had formerly sufficient proof. The pirate ships, however, joined and fled with all speed from the fleet. In three hours' chase none of the fleet gained upon them, except one grab. The remainder of the day was calm, and, to their great consolation, the next day this dreaded fleet ...
— The Pirates Own Book • Charles Ellms

... diminution of his first beaming cordiality. Braith's constraint was even more marked. He had turned quite white. Bulfinch and Gethryn, who had risen to receive him, remained standing side by side, stranded on the shoals of an awkward situation. The little Mirror man made a grab at a topic which he thought would float them off, and laid hold instead on one ...
— In the Quarter • Robert W. Chambers

... to the rear of the shop without being seen," whispered Hal. "When one guard makes his rounds, we must grab him and prevent him from making an outcry. We can then dispose of the other. You wait here a minute, while I go back and get a piece of clothes-line, so we ...
— The boy Allies at Liege • Clair W. Hayes

... Billy," 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 say, I've had ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... infernally still, I'd be floating and smoking and likely in time I'd make shore. That's a delightful pastime for you now," he added with a lazy smile of the utmost good humor, "to float and smoke on a summer day and grab at the shore." ...
— Diane of the Green Van • Leona Dalrymple

... wait until he comes down," planned Zip, "and then I will pounce out and grab him by the back of his neck and shake him as if he ...
— Zip, the Adventures of a Frisky Fox Terrier • Frances Trego Montgomery

... seldom worn—the derby hat was new and of a peculiar shade of brown; it was a little too small for its wearer's head and, even as Raish looked, a gust of wind lifted it and would have sent it whirling from the car had not Mr. Bangs saved it by a sudden grab. Raish chuckled. ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln

... the mainmast went and as it swung clear, the stays were hastily cut by the captain and Paul. The captain frantically motioned Betsy to grab one of the lines attached to the mast. The next moment a sea broke over her that carried the three of them, with two of the crew hanging on to the mast, which, clear of the wreck, was rapidly driven towards the shore. Once a great ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

... besieging this badger in its den for twelve hours. It had in the end made a desperate sortie, upset one man who had failed to grab its tail, run into and bitten another, and got clean away. Pharaoh was unfortunate in that he stood between the half-mad beast and another den ...
— The Way of the Wild • F. St. Mars

... long, low apartment adorned with old prints and playbills, Mr. Bagley took by conquest from another intending party a table close to a street window. He spread out his arms over as much of the table as they would cover, and evinced in various ways the impulse to grab and possess, which his very manner of walking had already shown. He even talked loud, as if to monopolize ...
— The Mystery of Murray Davenport - A Story of New York at the Present Day • Robert Neilson Stephens

... old Chiswick, but the deal fell through, owing to its turning out that the chap was an anarchist and intended to kick the old boy instead of shaking hands with him. At that, it took me the deuce of a time to persuade Bicky not to grab the cash and let things take their course. He seemed to regard the pawnbroker's brother rather as a sportsman and benefactor of his ...
— My Man Jeeves • P. G. Wodehouse

... 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

... instinct of Man, in such a situation, to grab at the nearest support. Henry grabbed at the Hotel Superba, the pride of the Esplanade. It was a thin wooden edifice, and it supported him for perhaps a tenth of a second. Then he staggered with it into the limelight, tripped over a Bulgarian officer who was ...
— The Man with Two Left Feet - and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse

... you 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 ...
— Plays • Alexander Ostrovsky

... kid with a dollar on circus day; and they use just 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

... persuaded him to buy and make over to her the estates of Saint-Leu and Boissy, as well as to make her legacies to the amount of a million francs. Much as she wanted to be received again at Court, she wanted more just as much as she could grab from the Prince's estate. To make her inheritance secure she needed the help of ...
— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... protest with such a furious kick at the policeman's leg that that functionary grew very red in the face, and making a grab at the offender, seized him by ...
— Reginald Cruden - A Tale of City Life • Talbot Baines Reed

... 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 we ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... the sky, you dope!" Pigtail almost screamed. "Wait'll Uncle Al hears what a meanie you are. If I wasn't your sister you wouldn't dare grab a paper that doesn't ...
— The Mississippi Saucer • Frank Belknap Long

... the elfin princess. There he is, great, ruddy, hairy wretch: there she is, a wraith of a creature made up of thistledown and fountain-bubbles and stars. He stares at her, stretches out his huge paw to grab a fairy, feathery tress of her dark hair. Defensive, she puts up her little hand. Its touch is an electric shock to the marauder. He blinks, and rubs his arm. He has a mighty respect for her. He could take her up in his fingers and eat ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke

... other hand, had to begin by withholding the natural resources from exploitation and extravagant use. It had, first of all, to establish in the national mind the principle that the forests and mines of the nation are not an inexhaustible grab-bag into which whosoever will may thrust greedy and wasteful hands, and by this new understanding to stop the squandering of vast national resources until they could be economically developed and intelligently ...
— Theodore Roosevelt and His Times - A Chronicle of the Progressive Movement; Volume 47 in The - Chronicles Of America Series • Harold Howland

... morning train and get the alias extradition papers from the Secretary of State. Make it a strict confidence. I will take this woman, the papers, and Doctor Atwater, and we will grab 'Mr. August ...
— The Midnight Passenger • Richard Henry Savage

... going down the Crow regained consciousness and I saw him pointing his gun at me as I was looking down. I then thought that would be my last day. As I got there the Sioux got there just in time to grab the revolver away from him, and as he pulled the revolver away I fell right under the enemy. He pulled a knife out of my belt, for I was under him, pushed up against a rock, and I could not move either way. He made a strike at me and cut my clothing right across ...
— The Vanishing Race • Dr. Joseph Kossuth Dixon

... that if a man can't get a car when he wants it?" demanded McNair impatiently. "The elevator gang 've organized to grab everything in sight. I know it. You know it. Everybody knows it, by heaven! So ...
— Deep Furrows • Hopkins Moorhouse

... said he. "Stir your stumps. We can slip out before anybody else awakes, grab something to eat in the pantry, and go down to the shed and tinker on the plane. Come on, Bob, we can get in a couple of hours work before ...
— The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border • Gerald Breckenridge

... Git up thim skids! Now thin, fer the sills. Grab aholt, min, they're not hot! All togither-r-r—heave! Togither-r-r—heave! Once more, heave! Walk her up, boys! Walk her up! Come on, Angus! Where's yer porridge gone to? Move over, two av ye! Don't take advantage av a little man loike that!" Angus was just six feet four. "Now thin, yer pikes! ...
— The Doctor - A Tale Of The Rockies • Ralph Connor

... fools I know are always cramming themselves with knowledge. But they never think. When they get a few minutes' leisure they grab a book and go to reading. In other words, they are always eating intellectually, but never digesting their ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden

... more carcasses and hanging them in this insane butcher-shop! Two sailors in uniforms would come staggering, carrying a man between them, clinging to the railing, to Jimmie, to the other men, to anything else they could grab. They would make a desperate rush while the swing was right, and get to a new place on the railing, where they would tie the new man with a bit of rope about his waist, and leave him there to be mauled and pounded. One side of the room was lined solid with ...
— Jimmie Higgins • Upton Sinclair

... was goin' to scoot, and I made a grab at him, but he give me a push that nearly tore my collar off, and away he went. You never see anybody run like he run. He was out of sight in ...
— A Bicycle of Cathay • Frank R. Stockton

... mock humility, "not much, but a little, maybe. I was going to put Silver Tip in the sweepstakes," he went on, "but I guess I won't. Th' Ramblin' Kid's got an entry and it looks like a darned shame for one outfit to want to hog it all and grab first and second money both, so I'll stay out ...
— The Ramblin' Kid • Earl Wayland Bowman

... tricks on them before. On wet days we used to make up a sham parcel, tie a thread to the end, and put it on the side of the pavement. Everyone who came along stooped down to pick it up, we gave a jerk to the string and moved it on a little further, then they gave another grab, and once or twice a man overbalanced himself and fell down, but it didn't always come off so well as that— oh, it was ...
— Sisters Three • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... When the project first started checking on saucers we were naturally anxious to get hold of one of the things. We told the pilots to do practically anything in reason, even if they had to grab one by the tail. ...
— The Flying Saucers are Real • Donald Keyhoe

... it, anyhow," he went on. "Well, we were feeding the monkeys, this time with melon-seeds, when we somehow aroused the ire of a particularly ugly brute, who must have been distantly connected with a bull. Anyhow, he made a grab at the scarlet berret you were wearing, just missed your hair, and ...
— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore

... as a coot; thinks he's the devil, and insists on wagging his little tail. I have to keep him marching with his hands up this way, because he might try to grab my rifle. Now, it's no use you gritting your teeth and mumbling German swear words, cherrybim. Keep your 'ands well up, and ...
— Action Front • Boyd Cable (Ernest Andrew Ewart)

... the window-sill, reaching down until her toes barely touched the floor, when all of a sudden, before they could grab her skirts, over she went, heels over head, down ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis

... teaching the people to grab more from the State. They'll take fast enough; they'll take quite as much as is good for 'em, without your assistance. But, for giving, the angel Gabriel and two advertisement canvassers wouldn't make 'em give a cent more than ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson

... rose in 'er button-'ole. I never 'eard tell of a farm 'and with a pink rose in 'is shirt before. Maybe such carryings on is all right for they grooms an' kerridge-'orses, but it ain't 'ardly decent for a respectable farm 'orse. So when this 'ere woman come along I up and 'as a grab at it. D'ye think she'd 'it me? I never 'ad such a shock in me life, not since I went backwards when the coal-cart tipped! Lor, lumme! if she didn't catch 'old of me round the neck an' kiss me! 'Oh, you darlin'!' she said, 'did you want me rose then, ducky?' I'm a brown 'orse, but I tell you I blushed ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Aug 29, 1917 • Various

... that one can. There are folk who use their families so. They live like parasites on the beautiful institution of family life, getting as much as possible for as little as possible. There are folk who use the nation so. To them their country is a gigantic grab-bag from which their greedy hands may snatch civic security and commercial gain. For such we have hard and bitter names. There is, however, one relationship—business—where we take for granted this very attitude which everywhere ...
— Christianity and Progress • Harry Emerson Fosdick

... like dat. An' dere come one day vhen ve 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 ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... 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 ...
— The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy - A Book for Young and Old • Florence Partello Stuart

... tock! Forty 'leven by the clock. Tick, tock! Tick, tock! Put your ear to Grandpa's ticker, Like a pancake, only thicker. Tick, tock! Tick, tock! Catch a squirrel in half a minute, Grab a sack and stick him in it. Tick, tock! Tick, tock! Mister Bunny feeds on honey, Tea, and taters—ain't it funny? Tick, tock! Tick, tock! When he goes to bed at night, Shoves his slippers out of sight; That is why Old Fox, the sinner, Had to go without his dinner. ...
— The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes • Leroy F. Jackson

... go?" But Mrs. Severance tried to grab for the hand with the revolver in it instead, and succeeded only in striking the barrel a little aside. There was a noise that sounded like a cannon-cracker bursting in Mr. Piper's face—it was so near—and then he was standing ...
— Young People's Pride • Stephen Vincent Benet

... pried apart. The man's foot slipped free. Dave, seeing this, dropped the branch, made a grab for the leg, for the man's body was going over the cliff. Of course he could not fall far, as the rope would hold him, but Dave wanted to save him ...
— Cowboy Dave • Frank V. Webster

... to save them," replied the lumberman. "I couldn't make them understand they must step back out of danger, so I had to rush to them and grab them. I'm afraid I did it pretty roughly, but I didn't ...
— The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West • Laura Lee Hope

... on hat and coat, ombrella in hand, (don't never forget that, for the rumatiz, like the perlice, is always on the look out here, to grab hold of a feller,) and go somewhere where there is somebody, or another, and smoke, and then wash it down with a sherry-cobbler; (the drinks ain't good here; they hante no variety in them nother; no white-nose, apple-jack, stone-wall, chain-lightning, rail-road, hail-storm, ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... 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 ...
— Arsene Lupin • Edgar Jepson

... grab our one stretcher. The two bearers seemed inclined to give it up. Nobody knew where our badly wounded man was. Nobody seemed very eager now to go and look for him. We three were surrounded and ordered to give up our stretcher. No use wasting time in hunting for one man, with the Germans ...
— A Journal of Impressions in Belgium • May Sinclair

... by this time that the Macedonian Committee was the key to the whole Balkan problem, in so far as it was an internal problem at least. All the little states surrounding Macedonia wanted to grab her, and Macedonia did not want to be grabbed by any of them. In their selfish greed the governing cliques of all the little states absolutely disregarded the will of the people of Macedonia. In their efforts they were ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various

... a desperate gesture. "Yes, you sit there and smile. It doesn't matter to you who suffers so long as you can grab ...
— The Knave of Diamonds • Ethel May Dell

... had not fully forgiven her for her odious grabbing of the 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 to the first seance (if it did not go very well, it would not particularly matter ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson

... good turn and get a few bonds back, but the next week there would be a new fiasco, and John would have to visit the Overland 4s again. That performance of the accountants had given him a huge contempt for bankers and banking. He knew that if he wanted to he could grab up a million any day and walk off with it, but he didn't want to. All he desired now was to get back to where he was before. All the speculation was in the hands of Prescott, and Prescott never seemed worried in the least. He called on John almost ...
— True Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office • Arthur Train

... confronted him. "Oh I take the bull by the horns—I know you haven't wanted to know me. If you had you'd have called on me—I've given you plenty of hints and little coughs. Now, you see, I don't cough any more—I just rush at you and grab you. You don't call on me—so I call on YOU. There isn't any indecency moreover that I won't commit for ...
— The Awkward Age • Henry James

... th' floor, settin up sich a skrike as yo niver heeard. Th' 'cannel went aat when it fell an all wor as dark as pitch, and Robert hearin th' maister skutterin daan th' stairs thowt his best plan wor to hook it; soa he grab'd up his lantern for owt he knew an buckled it on as he wor hurryin up th' steps. He'd hardly left when th' maister runs aat in his shirt, callin aat, "Police! police!" Robert comes fussin on as if he ...
— Yorkshire Ditties, First Series - To Which Is Added The Cream Of Wit And Humour From His Popular Writings • John Hartley

... 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 ...
— Civilization and Beyond - Learning From History • Scott Nearing

... of Anam and Tong King several years ago and since then she is scheming to extend her northern boundary line far into the Quang Se and Yun Nan Provinces; she is planning soon to grab the ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 54, No. 4, October, 1900 • Various

... He made a grab at it with his little fat hands. Whether this frightened its anxious mother or whether Down really had a purpose in view, who can say? Only this is sure: she was off the bed in a second, Miss Kitten in ...
— The Adventures of Akbar • Flora Annie Steel

... Colonel Colby would hold you responsible for that—not after he'd made a thorough investigation. But that ain't here nor there. What we want to do now is to grab those fellows before they've a chance to make a get-away. I'd just like to ketch 'em with Duster and Whitehead in their possession! I think I could find enough old-timers around here to hand all of 'em a rope," and Jarley Bangs' eyes had ...
— The Rover Boys at Big Horn Ranch - The Cowboys' Double Round-Up • Edward Stratemeyer

... and he observed things with a clear understanding. It was a lovely evening really and truly, and these ponderous omnibuses were all carrying people home because the day's work was done. The streets were clean and bright; and there was plenty of gayness and joy—for them as could grab a share of it. He noticed fine private carriages drawn up round corners, waiting for prosperous tradesmen; young men with tennis-bats in their hands, taking prodigiously long strides, eager to get a game of play before ...
— The Devil's Garden • W. B. Maxwell

... me to? You know they say Fortune is bald on the back of her head, and if you let her once slip past you there's nothing left to grab hold of." ...
— The Lever - A Novel • William Dana Orcutt

... a grab for him, but he was gone, and even as I did so the meaning of that hideous little round hole in his forehead came plain to me. The Frenchman was shooting at every ...
— Carette of Sark • John Oxenham

... Monty made a grab for the instrument, but Fred raised it above his head and brought it down between his knees with chords that crashed like wedding bells. Then he changed to softer, languorous music, and when he had picked ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy

... our narrative. At the sight of the unicorn, Pao-y was filled with intense delight. So much so, that he forthwith put out his hand and made a grab for it. "Lucky enough it was you who picked it up!" he said, with a face beaming with smiles. "But ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin

... to get rid of our blasted hungry neighbors," said Rea, coming in next morning with the water pail, "An' I'll be durned, Buff, if I don't believe them crazy heathen have been told about you. Them Indians was messengers. Grab your gun, an' let's ...
— The Last of the Plainsmen • Zane Grey

... that split his head and seemed to choke his breath.—It would kill him.—It must be stopped!" An insane desire to crush that yelling thing induced him to cast himself recklessly over the chair with a desperate grab, and they came down together in a cloud of dust amongst the splintered wood. The last shriek died out under him in a faint gurgle, and he had secured the relief of ...
— Almayer's Folly - A Story of an Eastern River • Joseph Conrad

... held the door open while she paid her fare and ordered her luggage to be transferred. The driver showed no very energetic appreciation of the idea; in fact, he seemed inclined to dispute it, and, at the end of her patience, Nan herself made a grab at her hat-box with the intention of carrying it across to the other taxicab. In the same moment she felt it quietly taken from her and heard the same drawling voice ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler

... Joseph, "you're a man of honor. I pledge you now I will not make public the nature of this document. Hardin can grab for the Senate now, if you boys can elect him. I'll not ...
— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage

... were then in his pocket, and he dropped a quarter dollar on the floor. I told him, 'I have not waited on you—you must be mistaken in the man, and I don't want another waiter's money.' He approached,—I suspected, and stepped back toward the dining-room door. By that time he made a grab at me, caught me by the collar of my shirt and vest,—then four more constables, he had brought with him, sprung on me,—they dragged me to the street door—there was a jamb—I hung on by the doorway. The head constable shackled ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 • Various

... proffered a mark, the German equivalent for the American quarter, and sought vainly through the misty memories of his lessons for the German equivalent of "Size me up for a chump?" The waiter had friends and fellow-conspirators, the boy had none, and when a grab was made for his portemonnaie he backed against the stone wall and whipped out his pygmy six-shooter. Miss Allison, looking out from her casement over the moonlit beauty of the scene before her, had recognized her brother's form and later his uplifted voice. She knew ...
— A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike • Charles King

... Bill to the last speaker, "ain't we makin' all the speed we can? Ain't it what I want to come up to the fool kid and grab him before he makes a hoss thief or somethin' out of himself? You gents feed your hosses the spur and leave the thinkin' to me. I got a pile ...
— Way of the Lawless • Max Brand

... just left Mr. Rogers and there is deviltry afoot. You cannot get to him any too quick." "One word of its nature?" I whispered back. "They are going to grab more than five ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson

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

... the presence of mind to swerve for a second and grab the hound which he had killed a short time before and drag it out so that it lay crossways of the hall; then on they dashed, while the lumbering sailors, better for climbing masts than for sprinting, ...
— Frontier Boys in Frisco • Wyn Roosevelt

... of the diamonds?" cried Mr. Damon, as he raced along behind Tom. "Now's our chance. Those fellows have all gone!" The odd man made a grab for something ...
— Tom Swift Among The Diamond Makers - or The Secret of Phantom Mountain • Victor Appleton

... can claw me!" exclaimed Stentor with an injured air, nodding to his gun, seeing his companion had already hurried off, "you can grab and duck me if this don't beat all!—you can burn an' blister me if ever I met a deaf cove as was so ongrateful as this 'ere deaf cove,—me 'avin' used this yer v'ice o' mine for 'is be'oof an' likewise benefit; v'ices ...
— The Amateur Gentleman • Jeffery Farnol et al

... averse to taking a letter to her when he went into Pine Flat for supplies. The post office was the resort of loungers. If they saw Old Man Haley coming in to mail a letter, they'd get curious; you couldn't tell but what they might wrastle with him and grab the letter. In a day or two maybe he could get into Mormons Landing, where he wasn't so well known, and mail it there. To placate Garland he promised him a paper; the man at the store would ...
— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner

... mortifying and ludicrous. The eagerness for trade among the bumboatmen, actual and expectant, sometimes becomes a nuisance; in their efforts to be first they form a mob quite beyond the control of the ship, the gangways and channels of which they none the less surround and grab, deaf to all remonstrance by words, however forcible. This is particularly the case the first day of arrival, before the privilege has been determined. In one such instance my patience gave way; the din alongside was indescribable, the confusion worse confounded, ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... already there's a new generation of aviators. Some of the old giants are gone, poor Moisant and Hoxsey and Johnstone and the rest killed, and there's coming along a bunch of youngsters that can fly enough to grab the glory, and they spread out the glory pretty thin. They go us old fellows except Beachey a few better on aerial acrobatics, and that's what the dear pee-pul like. (For a socialist I certainly do despise the pee-pul's taste!) I won't ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis

... the young gentleman continued to prattle on—and meantime Jurgis was trembling with excitement. He might grab that wad of bills and be out of sight in the darkness before the other could collect his wits. Should he do it? What better had he to hope for, if he waited longer? But Jurgis had never committed a crime in his life, and now he hesitated half ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... to us," said Billy Getz. "Now, what do you say, Detective Gubb? If we fix it so you can grab him, will you ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler

... get her out, Wes," said Annie. "She's 'way in under the stable, and she pecks at me so mean. You got longer arms'n me—you reach in and grab her." ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 • Various

... in de town see 'im sneakin' roun', but befo' dey could grab 'im he war gone. He seems to be in league wif de debil, an' can become inwisible when he ...
— The Kentucky Ranger • Edward T. Curnick

... that window and talk to some one who will be waiting just below. There may be no talk, but I think there will be, and I want you to listen to every word of it without so much as drawing a long breath, no matter what is said, until I grab your elbow—like this—then I want you to put up your hand in a hurry while I'm also ...
— The Avalanche • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

... blow it should be at the filthy Hubshi of the Aruwimi, the low degraded Woolly One from the dark Interior (of human sacrifice, cannibalism and ju-ju) who had proposed eating him. Yes—if he could grab the leader's knife and deal three such stabs as the Sheikh dealt the lion, at these three, he could die content. But this was absurd! They would halal him first, of course, and unbind him afterwards.... They might unbind him first though, so as to place him favourably ...
— Driftwood Spars - The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who - Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life • Percival Christopher Wren

... coming, but paid no attention to it as they did not understand its significance. "I saw it coming," he said, "with the water reaching a height of at least twenty-five feet, tearing trees up by the roots and dashing big rocks about as a boy would marbles. I hardly had time to grab a child and run for the hills when it was upon us, and in less time than it takes for me to tell it our village was entirely wiped out and the inhabitants were struggling in the water and were soon out of sight. I never want to see such a ...
— The Johnstown Horror • James Herbert Walker

... 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

... you was two minutes ago," sez Monody. "I stumbled onto Bill Brophy's gang last night. Bill has seven o' the lowest grade wolves 'at ever wore man-hide—I—I used to know Bill down in the Territory, an' Bill he thought I was still on the grab. He put me on. I'm supposed to be at the pony corral at midnight to turn the ponies loose an' bottle up the house gang in their shack. Brophy's bad medicine; you'd better pass up your eight-year-old lady friend an' come on back to the Lion ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason

... 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

... how I had them coopered," finished he. "Well, just as I was going to grab the kitty he played the ace of spades, produced an old document he held ...
— The Man Who Lost Himself • H. De Vere Stacpoole

... Henry's being sent to the far Orient was of a twofold character. In the first place, the Chinese Empire seemed to be on the eve of a break-up, and each of the various Great Powers of Europe, was exerting its utmost energies to secure the lion's share in the game of grab in progress at Pekin. Scions of European royalty who visit China and Japan are few and far between, and the emperor very naturally thought that the presence of Prince Henry at the head of the German naval forces in Chinese waters—a prince who in addition ...
— The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe: William II, Germany; Francis Joseph, Austria-Hungary, Volume I. (of 2) • Mme. La Marquise de Fontenoy

... "I'll change into my old clothes, put four mud chains on my car, and drive up, to the exchange in a hurry, then give some gabby guy a tip to grab Desert Scorpion for me at a dollar and a half—all he can get. After that I'll shoot out of town on high, with the cut-out open. There will be a string of cars after me inside of half an hour, and the stock will be up ...
— Flowing Gold • Rex Beach

... but he knew better than to attempt to stalk a man trained in the West. Instead, he worked himself into a protected position and carefully planted a Winchester bullet some six inches from the man's ear. The man woke up suddenly and made an instinctive grab toward his weapons. ...
— Blazed Trail Stories - and Stories of the Wild Life • Stewart Edward White

... the front walk like a great full-rigged ship. Miss Wingate flew down the steps to meet her and in a few seconds was enveloped and involved with little Hoover in an embrace that threatened to be disastrous to all concerned. Judy Pike was close behind and, making a grab on her own part, stood holding the end of the singer lady's sash in her one hand while Teether, from her other arm, caught at the bright ribbons and squealed with delight. The abashed Pattie hung over the front gate and ...
— The Road to Providence • Maria Thompson Daviess

... at a point on the sand close by. He had his right hand raised after the manner of a person who is trying to catch a fly. Suddenly he made a grab at the sand, and then opened his hand wide to ...
— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... ladies round 'em, Form a basket; balance all! Whirl yer gals to where you found 'em! Promenade around the hall! Balance to yer pards and trot 'em Round the circle, double quick! Grab and kiss 'em while you've got 'em— Hold 'em ...
— The New North • Agnes Deans Cameron

... the name of the pup—Andrew 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 just grip and hang on till they throwed up the sponge, if it was a year. Smiley always come ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various

... touched the gunwale. He screamed like a woman, gripped vainly at the air, and rolled under. A sea drove his head against the ship's side; the boat swung with tremendous force. Scraunch! and the poor fellow was gone, with his head crushed like a walnut. Joe tried to grab him with the boathook, but it was useless, and the unhappy ...
— The Chequers - Being the Natural History of a Public-House, Set Forth in - a Loafer's Diary • James Runciman

... boat and break us if we don't look out. I'll play him, and you shove the net under him. Damn!—God forgive me!—we've come out without a landing-net. Good Lord, Scarlett, you can't gaff him with a champagne-opener. There, you pull him in, and I'll grab him somehow. I've done it before. Crack, lie down, you infernal fool! Scarlett, if you pull him like that you'll lose him to a certainty. By George, he's a big one!" Doll tore off his coat and turned up his shirt-sleeves. "He's going under the boat. If you let him ...
— Red Pottage • Mary Cholmondeley



Words linked to "Grab" :   snaffle, harpoon, intercept, shoestring catch, snap up, grab bar, snatch, mesh, net, intrigue, grab sample, obtain, interlock, stop, grab bag, hog, fascinate, take hold of, nett, rebound, prehend, reception



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