Verb

(en verb)

To scratch or to tear at.

* '>citation

Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic.

To use the claws to seize, to grip.

To use the claws to climb.

(juggling) To perform a catch.

To move with one's fingertips.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 15 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Liverpool 1 - 1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=De Gea was United's hero again within seconds of Hernandez's equaliser, diving to his left to claw away Dirk Kuyt's shot as he got on the end of a superb cross from Stewart Downing.}}

(obsolete) To relieve uneasy feeling, such as an itch, by scratching; hence, to humor or flatter, to court someone.

* 1599 ,

I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

* Holland

Rich men they claw , soothe up, and flatter; the poor they contemn and despise.

(obsolete) To rail at; to scold.

* T. Fuller

In the aforesaid preamble, the king fairly claweth' the great monasteries, wherein, saith he, religion, thanks be to God, is right well kept and observed; though he ' claweth them soon after in another acceptation.

Verb

(grabb)

To grip suddenly; to seize; to clutch.

* , chapter=7

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.}}

To make a sudden grasping or clutching motion (at something).

To restrain someone; to arrest.

To grip the attention; to enthrall.

(informal) To quickly collect or retrieve.

* 1987 James Grady Just a Shot Away , Bantam, p117

"I'll just grab my jacket," said Manh-Hung.

* 1999 Jillian Dagg, Racing Hearts, Thomas Bouregy & Co., p105

Hardly believing that Rafe actually planned to relax for a while, Kate nodded. "All right. Fine. I'll just go grab my purse."

* 2009 Mike Taylor, A Thousand Sleeps, Tate Publishing, p216

He looked at Albert and Ben, and then back to Nurse Allen. "I'll just grab my gear and be right back."

(informal) To consume something quickly.

To take the opportunity of.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 19, author=Paul Fletcher, work=BBC Sport

, title= Blackpool 1-2 West Ham , passage=Both teams wasted good opportunities to score but it was the London side who did grab what proved to be the decisive third when the unmarked Vaz Te, a January signing from Barnsley, drilled the ball into the net from 12 yards.}}