grab v.
1. (also grab off) to steal, to take or obtain for oneself; to rob.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | London Guide. | |
| Real Life in London I 137: [He] grabb’d his pocket-handkerchief, and was after shewing a leg, when a little boy that kept his oglers upon ’em, let me into the secret, and let the cat out of the bag by bawling — Stop thief! | |
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Ernest Maltravers I 43: There, man, grab the money, it’s on the table. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: To steal is to prig, to pinch, to collar, to nail, to grab, to nab. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Breitmann in Politics’ in Hans Breitmann About Town 32: All pooblic tockuments / Vich he can grap or shteal / vill sendt / Franked — mit his gompliments. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 236: As she turned her back and went into the house I grabbed the key, and so they couldn’t lock it nohow. | |
| Forty Years a Gambler (1996) 34: He told us that two fellows had grabbed and robbed him of $400 in gold. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 72: I’m goin’ tuh grab off this old guy an’ not waste no time. He’s rollin’ in money. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 41: I’m going up to Newport — Maybe I can grab off an heiress up there. | |
| The Big Town 157: Ella had grabbed $160 on that race and was $140 ahead. | |
| Broadway Brevities Dec 13/2: Didn’t she finally settle upon the boob who grabs off a big earned increment in moving pictures. | |
| Prison Days and Nights 22: They’re out there grabbing off more dough than we’ll ever see. | |
| What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 16: I just came down to grab a couple of drinks. | |
| I, Mobster 47: I was grabbing off a hundred grand a year in the alky racket. | |
| Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 51: ‘You shouldn’t grab so much.’ ‘Grab be boggered. I earn it.’. | |
| Dirty Laundry 94: You want to grab a beer somewhere? | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 97: Got there early, grabbed a table before they all got turned over. |
2. (also grab off) to arrest; thus grabbing n.
| Discoveries (1774) 18: We all resolved if Brown was grabbed, that is, taken, to rescue him. [Ibid.] 433: Our Fence is grabb’d; our Receiver is taken. | |
| Whole Art of Thieving [as cit. 1753]. | |
| Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 6/2: Agreed to grab about a dozen old acquaintances for examination next week. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: To Grab. To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddey for a crack: the officers seized the youth for a burglary. | |
| Doings in London 253: Some of them act as ‘touters’ to those who may have got the ‘swag,’ and the moment they find that the thief is ‘grabbed’ (apprehended), they run off. | |
| Oliver Twist (1966) 133: Do you want to be grabbed, stupid? | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Paved with Gold 284: If there’s a goose or hen within ten miles of us I’ll wring his neck or be grabbed. | |
 | gloss. in Occurrence Book of York River Lockup in (1999) 37: A cross cove who had his regulars lowr, a fly grabbed him. I am afraid he will blow it. | |
| Newcastle Courant 9 Sept. 6/5: Detective Grabbem [...] a dark keen-eyed officer. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 6/3: In 1855, he robbed a bank in Ballarat of £6000, and got clean away to London, where he was arrested by a Victorian detective who ‘cooee’d’ after him in the street, and on his looking round, ‘grabbed’ him. | |
| Salt Lake Trib. (UT) 27 Nov. 4/3: What was we grabbed for? | |
| Enemy to Society 274–55: Now I know why you knew they never done them things. Guess I’ve grabbed myself a bunch of promotion to-night. | |
| From Coast to Coast with Jack London 101: I’ve got a regular ‘lead pipe cinch’ on the grabbing of the ornery scamps. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 74: That junk would get us five years, kid, if we got grabbed with it. | |
| Sister of the Road (1975) 100: They grabbed him off and he’s confessed everything. | |
| Capricornia (1939) 342: The jonnops come along and found the lubra with Con and grabbed ’em both. | |
| Nightmare Alley (1947) 122: A spook worker never takes a real rap [...] If anybody grabs, the chumps rally around him and start alibi-ing their heads off. | |
| Playback 79: Even if the cops didn’t grab him. | |
| Panic in Needle Park (1971) 176: You should have told me you were going to grab him here. | |
| Friends of Eddie Coyle 74: I got grabbed at the Weirs about five years ago. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 20: That kid from Listowel that I grabbed. | |
| Chopper From The Inside 104: What he does is ‘create’ other drug lords for the police to grab. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 94: One of them was gonna get himelf grabbed. | |
| ‘Upsuh’ 🎵 Feds come I don't wanna get grabbed. |
3. (US) to grasp, to comprehend.
| Down the Line 14: She wanted to know what I meant by dope, and I told her it generally meant a sour dream, but she didn’t seem to grab. | |
| (con. 1940s) Dark Sea Running 11: I’m your boss. When I blow my whistle [...] Move, grab me? | |
| Undercover 230: [G]rab this—how do we all of a sudden install silent cameras and conceal them. |
4. to appeal to; esp. as how does that grab you?
| letter 21 Feb. in Proud Highway (1997) 439: It may grab you. If not, send it back. | |
| Old Familiar Juice (1973) 104: bulla: ‘From soldier to soak in thirty years.’ (Laughing) That grab yer any better? | |
| in Texas Obs. 25 July in Davis (ed) Land of the Permanent Wave 13: [W]e would find a banger of a first-person story that was supposed to grab people. |
5. (US) to capture, to kidnap, to abduct (other than in a judicial context).
| ‘The Gutting of Couffignal’ Story Omnibus (1966) 29: You’ve been waiting for your mob to come back and grab me. | |
| ‘Nevada Gas’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 165: I want a figure put on the bird that had me grabbed. | |
| Carlito’s Way 88: Alfonso and Shad were grabbed in Newark. | |
| Skin Tight 231: He’ll grab him on the way in or out. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 10: He said they grabbed Gwen Perloff. |
6. (US) to catch some form of transport, usu. a train or taxi.
| Gay-cat 211: I’ll have to grab the next southbound rattler an’ git outer here. | |
| ‘Dream Street Rose’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 58: My friend goes [...] to grab a taxi. | |
| ‘Depend on Aunt Elly’ in Texas Stories (1995) 101: Every time he fought there he’d grab a bus and get over to Texarkana. | |
| Little Men, Big World 58: He walked down to Putnam Boulevard, a wide through-street, and grabbed a taxi. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 258: I don’t know for sure I’ll go there. Like I said, maybe I’ll grab a ship. | |
| Psychology for Our Times 31: As usual, your train was late so you grab a taxi to make up time. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 123: There’s a cab. You ought to grab it. They’re hard to find in the rain. | |
| Thinking Out Loud 108: She could grab a plane and be standing in line at the Magic Kingdom that very day. | |
| Conversation with the Mann 87: I held out a couple of bucks. ‘Here. Grab a cab.’. | |
| Mexico 436: Either hop a local bus or grab a cab. |
7. (US) to irritate.
| in Pocketful of Miracles [film script] Hey? What’s grabbin’ her? [HDAS]. |
8. (US) to make a turn in a vehicle.
| Family (1972) 271: He grabbed a right and parked off Cielo Drive. |
9. to have sexual relations; thus grabbing n.
| Sl. U. | |
| London Fields 154: Keith launched into a squalid decameron of recent gallops and tumbles, instant liaisons, valiant cuckoldries, eagerly requited grabbings and gropings. |
10. (US und.) to seize the ‘right’ to extort payments from.
| When Corruption Was King 85: A crew could ‘grab’ an independent criminal, no matter where he was, and as long as they grabbed him first, they could keep him and a piece of his action. |
In derivatives
(UK black) greedy, grabby.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | in Dict. Jam. Eng. (2nd edn). | |
| (con. 1979–80) Brixton Rock (2004) 85: Angela kidnapped Finnley’s spliff [...] Finnley admonished. ‘Where’s your patience. You’re too grabalicious!’. | |
| (con. 1981) East of Acre Lane 31: Give ’im his twenty notes, Coff. You know how he’s grabilicious from time. |
In compounds
1. (Aus./US) a greedy person.
| Cruel London I 73: You can’t help it I reckon, that yer mester’s a fool and a grab-all. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 13/1: [...] just as if the deities were a set of mud-headed idiots to be cajoled by flattery, or a crowd of miserly graballs to be seduced by bribes. |
2. the driver of a Hansom cab.
| Lancs. Eve. Post 17 May 2/6: The driver of a hansom [cab] is a ‘graball’. |
3. a bag to carry odds and ends.
| DSUE (1984) 493/1: from ca. 1890. |
4. (US Und.) a detective.
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 19 Oct. 5/1: Mr Bates’ leather sticks out of his inside kick and Jimmy thinks it’s a shame. He cops and lams a couple of blocks. He’s weeding it when he sees a grab all across the street leaning on a mush with a steamer in his face. |
see separate entry.
(US) the hands or fingers.
| Overland Mthly 54 278/2: Old man Havers has got a mania for importin’ all them college-bred sap-heads out here that he can get his grab-hooks onto. | |
| Modern Hobo 45: Back in New York the guys are more progressive, they don’t use their palms for tips any more — their ‘grab-hooks’ hold a hat. | |
| Law of.45’s 55: It might be a good idea to stick yore grab-hooks up in the air [HDAS]. | |
| in DARE. |
(US) a snack bar, a cafeteria.
| Northwestern U. Studies in the Social Sciences I 136: Did you ever have anything to do with a ‘grab joint’ on a carnival? | |
| Headless Lady (1987) 29: A grab joint is a hot-dog stand; a grease joint is a lunch wagon or stand; a juice joint the lemonade -. | |
| Hey, Sucker 101: grab joint ... cookhouse; sandwich stand. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Madball (2019) 40: She’d [...] told him to go to the grab joint, not all the way to the chow top but just to the grab joint, and get her a coney island sandwich. | |
| I Love You Honey, But the Season’s Over 130: The white-jacketed concession men, who worked the ‘juice’ and ‘grab’ joints, handed out red hots and watery orange drinks. | |
| Mrs Pollifax Pursued 104: C’mon, let’s hit Mick for a cup of coffee at the grab-joint. | |
| Tattoo of a Naked Lady 6: The grab joints and flashy rides were a front for the real action: flat stores, alibi and percentage joints, crap tables, slot machines, fortune wheels. | |
| ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Grab Joint or Grease Joint — An eating concession in which the customer takes away food served directly over the counter. |
In phrases
to raise one’s hands.
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 161: Grab a cloud you bums or I’ll ventilate you! |
(US tramp) to steal a ride, modified by a term for the vehicle, usu. a train, e.g. grab an armful of freight.
| Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 232: I’s gwine grab me a armful o’ freight an’ foller de smoky trail. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 105: grab a handful of rods To catch a freight train. | |
| Drylongso 153: I knew where he had gone [...] I grabbed an armload of airplane, I want you to know, and brought Rupert Alexander White right back to this house. |
1. (US) to go outside for some fresh air.
| Kick 174: ‘You want to grab some air?’ I asked, standing. [...] . I gave him a nod and started toward the door. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 59: We’re four guys grabbing some air. |
2. see grab (the) sky
(US) to hold tight, to get busy, to go ahead.
| diary 18 Jan. in Winther With Sherman to the Sea (1958) 148: His mule lost its footing, and someone yelled to him to grab a root and the boys took it up and you could hear ‘Grab a root’ in evry [sic] direction. | |
| Harper’s Mag. May 913/2: One more wicked than them all sang out that old army slang, ‘Grab a root!’ [DA]. | |
| Under the Old Flag II 28: And yet wherever mounted men went this reward was vociferously shouted with the derisive cry: ‘Dismount and grab a root!’. | |
| Main Travelled Roads (1995) 8: Grab a root there! Where’s my band-cutter? | |
| Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 211: Grab a root, dah, yo fo-eyed bastahrd! | |
| Vanguards of the Frontier 481: ‘Rise and grab a root!’ Another shouted: ‘Chuck-a-luck-a-luck-a-chuck, come and get it ’fore I throw it out.’. | |
| Sometimes a Great Notion 490: Grab a root an’ dig. |
see separate entry.
see under stump n.
(US) a diner, a lunch counter; also attrib.
| Honey in the Horn 37: She was running the kitchen and tending a grab-and-gallop lunch-counter for an average of forty men a day. | |
| in DARE. | |
| posting at www.haloscan.com 16 June 🌐 The only burger-flipping experience comes from the troll. Things must be slow at the Grab It and Growl. |
1. see sense 1 above.
2. see sense 2 above.
1. to survive, to get along.
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II I 139/1: I do manage to grab on somehow, and that’s more than many of my purfession can do. |
2. (US campus) to make sexual advances towards, to neck.
| Current Sl. III:1 7: Grab on, v. To neck. |
see under dick n.1
(US) to put one’s hands in the air (cf. reach for the sky under reach v.).
| Oshkosh Northwestern (WI) 26 Sept. 15/4: Mussweiler was prepareing to close his litle shop [...] when a dapper youth entered and told him to ‘grab the sky’. | |
| ‘Nevada Gas’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 159: Just drop the gat, blondie. The rest of you grab air. | |
| Buckingham Advertiser 2 July 2/4: ‘Grab the sky, stranger!’ came the voice. | |
| Alton Eve. Teleg. (IL) 3 Nov. 30/2: [cartoon caption] ‘Whatcha mean, grab sky? Who d’ya think you are? | |
| Oh Boy! No. 17 9: You’re one of the gang – grab sky! | |
| Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 26 July 14/1: The man [...] ordered the junior burglars to grab some air and held them at pistol point. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1920s) Emerald Square 43: It was a case of ‘Claw sky, hombre’ or be ventilated. |
what do you think of that?
| in Choice Sl. 35: How does that grab yer? | |
| College Vocab. 1: How does that grab you? | |
| (con. 1950s) Unit Pride (1981) 271: She’ll ask if it’s O.K. if she ships over Stateside [...] How’s that grab your ass? | |
| Stay Hungry 168: I’m yours. Completely all yours. How does that grab you? | |
| Serial 54: I mean, how does that grab you? | |
| Christine 391: How does first-degree murder sound to you, Arnie? Does that grab you with any force? | |
| et al. Working Lives 115: Flapjacks and syrup and a bit of good old roo steak straight from the pan. How’s that grab you? | |
| Therapy (1996) 51: Yep, how does that grab you, Mr Passmore? | |
| Never Ever Say Yes 21: You’re beautiful enough to become the world’s best [i.e. model]. How does that grab you? | |
| Urban Grimshaw 21: How does that grab you? |