What's the difference between cling and grab?

Cling


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To adhere closely; to stick; to hold fast, especially by twining round or embracing; as, the tendril of a vine clings to its support; -- usually followed by to or together.
  • (v. t.) To cause to adhere to, especially by twining round or embracing.
  • (v. t.) To make to dry up or wither.
  • (n.) Adherence; attachment; devotion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The first stop in this arid place of poor farms and orchards clinging to the dry soil is Rafah, cut off by the border from its Palestinian counterpart.
  • (2) Feminism sometimes clings too hard to a sense of identity that always equates "female" with "underdog".
  • (3) Everton head to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday but whether Roberto Martínez clings on beyond that game is open to doubt.
  • (4) Their families are said be be distraught at the news and have been clinging to the hope their daughters would want to come home.
  • (5) Her husband, a government official, went straight back to work after being rescued from the roof of the town hall, where he survived by clinging on to the perimeter fence while 70 of his colleagues drowned.
  • (6) It's just Boris being Boris, we say, as if life were just one extended episode of Have I Got News for You Alternatively, there is the scenario remainers cling to.
  • (7) Although it remains unclear why he chose to place the muddled woman in a kitchen – clinging to her mug and surrounded by children's toys – as opposed to say, in a laboratory or a truck, he claims all the words were authentically spoken by "women in dozens of focus groups around the country", prior to being stitched together in this latest triumph for the fashionable, verbatim school of drama.
  • (8) Theresa May signals support for UK-EU membership deal Read more On Dave went, clinging to the inverse principle that the less you have to say, the more time you should spend saying it.
  • (9) Obama said then: They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
  • (10) From time to time I'd bump into Amy she had good banter so we could chat a bit and have a laugh, she was a character but that world was riddled with half-cut, doped-up chancers, I was one of them, even in early recovery I was kept afloat only by clinging to the bodies of strangers so Winehouse, but for her gentle quirks didn't especially register.
  • (11) As I type I can smell the nauseating scent of death that clings to me still.
  • (12) An orderly process of dealing with asylum claims at the earliest point would be infinitely preferable to desperate families laying siege to central European railway stations, risking their lives clinging on to vehicles at Calais or suffocating in vehicles transporting them across borders.
  • (13) Arsenal are clinging to the hope that, like Olivier Giroud, who returned as a goal-scoring substitute in the 2-1 loss to United weeks ahead of schedule after fracturing his tibia in late August, Wilshere could yet surprise people and make a speedy recovery.
  • (14) That Russian meeting appears to have been the key to Milosevic's surrender of power as Ivanov informed him that he would have no support from Moscow if he attempted to cling on.
  • (15) But it may help steer a few more people away from Starbucks in the direction of Costa or one of those small independent coffee shops, book shops, grocers (etc, etc) whom we should cherish while they cling on in the face of unfair competition.
  • (16) The union claims Four Seasons, the UK's second largest care home provider, is also "clinging on by its fingernails".
  • (17) Others are said to be clinging on to the idea that Ukip remains a convenient means of taking votes from the Tories (witness the surreally complacent words of the Labour frontbencher Angela Eagle: “I’m not as worried as some might be about Ukip’s appeal to Labour voters.
  • (18) Hadlow, the controller of BBC2 since 2008 and BBC4 before that, is engaging company with a frustrating tendency to cling to the fence, at least in public.
  • (19) They cling to the realm, or the gods, or love: illusions.
  • (20) The only effect on postnatal development of the central nervous system (CNS) was a small transient change in neuromotor clinging ability of female offspring.

Grab


Definition:

  • (n.) A vessel used on the Malabar coast, having two or three masts.
  • (v. t. & i.) To gripe suddenly; to seize; to snatch; to clutch.
  • (n.) A sudden grasp or seizure.
  • (n.) 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.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) During the couple's 30-year marriage she had twice reported him to the police for grabbing her by the throat, before they divorced in 2005.
  • (2) The ruling centre-right coalition government of Angela Merkel was dealt a blow by voters in a critical regional election on Sunday after the centre-left opposition secured a wafer-thin victory, setting the scene for a tension-filled national election in the autumn when everything will be up for grabs.
  • (3) Montreal also took advantage of the power play, as Tomas Vanek (again, another necessary scorer) grabbed one with the man advantage near the end of the second period to make it 3-0.
  • (4) Van Gaal argued that Huth had grabbed Fellaini’s considerable hair and claimed it ought to have been a penalty but the Football Association’s disciplinary department will surely take action.
  • (5) In a trailer shown Sunday for an upcoming documentary on state-run Rossiya-1 television called “Homeward bound”, Putin openly discusses Moscow’s controversial grabbing of Crimea a year ago.
  • (6) And also fear of the police because they weren't there and thinking any minute they could just run through and grab or hit anyone.
  • (7) One little boy grabbed me and pleaded with me, that the Jungle was not a good place, and he didn’t want to be there.” Last month, protesters staged a die-in at St Pancras station in London against plans to clear the area of the Jungle.
  • (8) The "fly on the wall" stuff is no more for the moment but, Andy, grab the opportunities when you can – a few years down the line when Cameron is on the lecture circuit and the rest of us are hanging up our cameras for good, you should have an unprecedented photographic record of a seat of power.
  • (9) Egypt • Morsi is due to meet senior judges to try to reach a compromise over the decree, viewed by many as a power grab.
  • (10) At that point I was grabbed by the Belgian secret service and slammed against the glass.
  • (11) I think the heart of good comedy really lives in truth and reacting to the absurdities, hypocrisies, abuses of power in the world.” Late night television is a no longer a glass of warm milk before bed, it’s a lunch buffet And as TV viewership declines and internet virality becomes as important as real-time eyeballs, cable networks might find that topical comedy is a smart, cost-effective way to grab cross-platform attention.
  • (12) Another officer grabbing Mann by the collar and threatening his family – to arrest his wife’s “black ass” and ensure he would not see his young son grow up, Mann recalled in an interview – if he did not snitch on a heroin dealer.
  • (13) Latino Review has a track record of attention-grabbing scoops, though its accuracy has occasionally been called into question.
  • (14) He is the embodiment of the belief that money and power provide a licence to impose one’s will on others, whether that entitlement is expressed by grabbing women or grabbing the finite resources from a planet on the verge of catastrophic warming.
  • (15) Then King grabbed the podium and set his prepared text to his left.
  • (16) "At lunchtime, he would grab food from other children's plates and eat it, and that was a cause of concern for the school staff."
  • (17) The bomb threat tweet was sent to Freeman, the Europe editor of Time magazine, Catherine Mayer, and the Independent columnist Grace Dent, who took a screen grab of the tweet and posted it for her Twitter followers to see .
  • (18) Who knows, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world for the Eastern Conference to be completely up for grabs.
  • (19) A waiter grabbed a table cloth to use as a stretcher, but a photographer took the boy in his arms to carry him to the ambulance.
  • (20) As night fell, one teenager, Alex, who had slipped out of an independent school (she refused to say which one) was heading home, pausing only grab a flier advertising a "Snow Rave" for 16-18-year-olds.