How to Use grasp at in a Sentence

grasp at

phrasal verb

• The woman’s eyes are squeezed shut, and her hand grasps at Trump’s elbow.
  — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2024
• When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, people grasped at once that a new era had started.
  — Margaret MacMillan, Foreign Affairs, 7 Jan. 2025
• Or the time her son grasped at her hand and was puzzled to find only an empty sleeve.
  — Safak Timur Emin Ozmen, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2024
• That’s one of the first lessons in poker, and an important concept to grasp at work, too.
  — Kayla Webster, WSJ, 25 Dec. 2023
• Stop grasping at style straws — this bag style is going to take your look to a whole new level.
  — Alyssa Grabinski, Peoplemag, 22 July 2024
• Between scenes, the stage shifts back and forth on a turntable, like the house is trying to move, while the trees above its roof seem to grasp at the characters.
  — Vulture, 6 June 2023
• Late in the third quarter, cornerback Marlon Humphrey ripped the ball from Brown’s grasp at the line of scrimmage.
  — Baltimore Sun Staff, Baltimore Sun, 8 Nov. 2024
• For the former president, the meeting proved that Putin is struggling in the war and grasping at straws for support.
  — Alex Hulvalchick, Chicago Tribune, 19 Sep. 2023
• In the litigation, funded largely by A’s fans grasping at any hope of keeping their team in town, the union has gone 0 for 2.
  — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2024
• With Alcala in the wind, former Detective Steve Hodel was grasping at thin air.
  — Peter Van Sant, CBS News, 14 May 2024
• Hard-liners might have lost all trust in McCarthy, but the speaker is also grasping at ways to forge a path forward.
  — David Sivak, Washington Examiner, 6 June 2023
• One by one, the 82 climbed up the Brewton’s accommodation ladder, reaching the top, grasping at sailors’ hands to pull them aboard.
  — Brendan Quinn, The Athletic, 1 July 2024
• No point grasping at straws hoping Sanders, Ward, or Ewers can save this franchise from despair.
  — Vic Tafur, The Athletic, 16 Jan. 2025
• McLaughlin bailed out a dead-in-the-water fourth-and-goal toss by leaving two Bucs grasping at air and dashing into the corner of the end zone to put the Broncos ahead 14-0 late in the first quarter.
  — Parker Gabriel, The Denver Post, 22 Sep. 2024
• This represents to me a full circle of dedication to a craft (acting, in this case), grasping at the highest moment and then restarting the process again.
  — Michael Slenske, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Mar. 2024
• But a last-act grasp at profundity in Ruth Greenberg’s screenplay feels unearned.
  — Joshua Rothkopf, Los Angeles Times, 10 Feb. 2024
• Gas station signs rise above flat landscapes while Spanish Revival homes and Googie structures grasp at faded panache.
  — Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2023
• There's also a creepy rocking cradle, a bird's egg falling from a tree top and shattering, and long fingers grasping at a pregnant belly.
  — Lauren Huff, EW.com, 25 Aug. 2023
• Giving an elite athlete like Barkley all that room puts pressure on second- and third-level defenders to bring him down, and they’re often left grasping at air or being shoved into the ground.
  — C.j. Doon, Baltimore Sun, 26 Nov. 2024
• But in the second half, the 6-foot-10 forward is mostly relegated to the sideline, grasping at garbage time and early fourth-quarter rotations.
  — Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 23 Jan. 2025
• Analysts have suggested that Putin was merely taking his time to get a better grasp at the mogul’s enterprises.
  — Mary Ilyushina, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2023
• British people have a name for their royal family that grasps at its weird status as both a family and a money-making enterprise.
  — Time, 25 June 2023
• This is grasping at something, or really at everything, everywhere, all the time.
  — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 25 Sep. 2024
• Robinson, in his fourth year out of Stanford, immediately grasped at his right knee after racing down on punt coverage.
  — Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2024
• And the third act hits you like a third martini: You are dragged along on the potent tide, buoyed by memories of former rationality, grasping at understanding.
  — Raven Smith, Vogue, 3 Jan. 2024
• The functionality is a little hard to grasp at first, which is probably why TextExpander forces you through a tutorial.
  — PCMAG, 16 May 2024
• The dearth of information, paired with this week's committee firings, has left companies and policy experts grasping at straws.
  — Sam Sabin, Axios, 24 Jan. 2025
• Birnbaum couldn’t have grasped at the time how fundamentally and importantly boring so much of Murakami’s writing is.
  — Bailey Trela, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
• For some major interview opportunities like the Super Bowl, Biden’s team has simply declined, giving up a chance that most politicians would grasp at eagerly.
  — Josh Dawsey, Washington Post, 4 July 2024
• Order is built, shapes and lines are constructed, but only so the moment of deep human feeling, of risk and vulnerability, a desperate grasp at intimacy, can take place.
  — Lynn Steger Strong, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2023