Verb

(gripp)

To take hold of, particularly with the hand.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=19 citation , passage=When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.}}

To help or assist, particularly in an emotional sense.

* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4

By and by fumes of brandy began to fill the air, and climb to where I lay, overcoming the mouldy smell of decayed wood and the dampness of the green walls. It may have been that these fumes mounted to my head, and gave me courage not my own, but so it was that I lost something of the stifling fear that had gripped me, and could listen with more ease to what was going forward

To do something with another that makes you happy/gives you relief.

To trench; to drain.

Verb

(rapp)

To strike something sharply with one's knuckles; knock.

* 1845 , (Edgar Allan Poe), "":

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, ¶ Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, ¶ While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, ¶ As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. ¶ "'Tis some visitor", I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door — ¶ Only this, and nothing more."

* 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter II,

He walked softly up the sanded path, tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped' at the front door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of footsteps. After a moment he ' rapped again, a little louder than before.

(dated) To strike with a quick blow; to knock on.

* Prior

With one great peal they rap the door.

(metalworking) To free (a pattern) in a mould by light blows on the pattern, so as to facilitate its removal.

(ambitransitive) To speak (lyrics) in the style of rap music.

''He started to rap after listening to the Beastie Boys

He rapped a song to his girlfriend.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=April 19 , author=Josh Halliday , title=Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised? , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=But the purported rise in violent videos online has led some MPs to campaign for courts to have more power to remove or block material on YouTube. The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online.}}

(informal) To talk casually.