What's the difference between grapple and seize?

Grapple


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To seize; to lay fast hold of; to attack at close quarters: as, to grapple an antagonist.
  • (v. t.) To fasten, as with a grapple; to fix; to join indissolubly.
  • (v. i.) To use a grapple; to contend in close fight; to attach one's self as if by a grapple, as in wrestling; to close; to seize one another.
  • (v. t.) A seizing or seizure; close hug in contest; the wrestler's hold.
  • (v. t.) An instrument, usually with hinged claws, for seizing and holding fast to an object; a grab.
  • (v. t.) A grappling iron.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It would seem that Cameron's repeated high-profile speeches on immigration may have more to do with meeting the political challenge of Ukip than grappling with any alleged problem of benefit or health "tourism".
  • (2) UK consumers spend £90bn a month on goods and services, but figures from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills show that last year they grappled with more than 18m problems and were left £4.15bn out of pocket.
  • (3) Grappling with churches is about the most distasteful contest they can imagine.
  • (4) Primark’s heady pace of expansion has bolstered ABF, which is grappling with lower sugar prices that have reduced profits in its core business.
  • (5) He would have liked to spend the summer bolstering his case for a critical autumn referendum on constitutional reforms he supports, but instead he has been forced to grapple with the banking issues.
  • (6) The eurogroup source said that Samaras was expected to show up in Luxembourg on Thursday for the meeting of eurozone finance ministers which will grapple with Spain and how to respond to the Greek election results.
  • (7) But as Republicans grapple with how to respond to groups like Black Lives Matter, they risk inflicting the kind of harm that in 2012 earned GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney just 6% of the African American vote.
  • (8) Hookem said: “It was two people grappling, that had hold of each other, and were basically still stood up but wrestling.
  • (9) In recent months, Tunisia was already grappling with a growing jihadi problem.
  • (10) Needless to say, BoKlok's brains have grappled with the conundrum.
  • (11) Investigators grappling to solve the mystery of the jet's disappearance are set to scour a zone 1,100 miles (1,800km) west of Perth – previously subject to an aerial search – when an underwater probe resumes in August, the West Australian newspaper said.
  • (12) It is the latest in a string of measures introduced by the Chinese authorities as they continue to grapple with wild fluctuations in the share market, which have fallen by 40% since June.
  • (13) As the protests were staged the centre-left cabinet in Portugal called an emergency session to try to prune more from public spending, as it grappled with a debt and deficit crisis that has thrown the spotlight back on to the country.
  • (14) She won't be intimidated by it but it won't be the Patten-esque highlight of her career grappling with [Tory MP and BBC critic] Philip Davies ," said one friend.
  • (15) The central question always legitimately asked of a country grappling to forge its post-apartheid future and deal with entrenched poverty, particularly in the black townships, is whether South Africa should really be spending £800m in public money hosting a football tournament.
  • (16) Abbott, in so many ways, seemed forged of earlier times, a man from the past delivered here and destined to grapple with very modern challenges.
  • (17) Tom Cummings spent three years grappling with his addiction.
  • (18) There is a qualitative difference in whose leadership is being visibilized, and black women are forcing ourselves into the forefront.” As we all grapple with racist state violence in the context of a deeply patriarchal society, black women organizers continue to put their bodies on the line to bring forth justice where it has yet to take root.
  • (19) Professional nursing has been grappling with many different care delivery models in order to deal with a dramatic rise in patient acuity levels, increasing financial constraints, and a worrisome nursing shortage.
  • (20) Throughout the New Yorker extract, Talese grapples with the knowledge that Foos is a sometimes unreliable source.

Seize


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To fall or rush upon suddenly and lay hold of; to gripe or grasp suddenly; to reach and grasp.
  • (v. t.) To take possession of by force.
  • (v. t.) To invade suddenly; to take sudden hold of; to come upon suddenly; as, a fever seizes a patient.
  • (v. t.) To take possession of by virtue of a warrant or other legal authority; as, the sheriff seized the debtor's goods.
  • (v. t.) To fasten; to fix.
  • (v. t.) To grap with the mind; to comprehend fully and distinctly; as, to seize an idea.
  • (v. t.) To bind or fasten together with a lashing of small stuff, as yarn or marline; as, to seize ropes.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Batson believes there is a “mood” that needs to be seized upon.
  • (2) George Osborne said the 146,000 fall in joblessness marked "another step on the road to full employment" but Labour and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) seized on news that earnings were failing to keep pace with prices.
  • (3) Can somebody who is not a billionaire, who stands for working families, actually win an election into which billionaires are pouring millions of dollars?” Naming prominent and controversial rightwing donors, he said: “It is not just Hillary, it is the Koch brothers, it is Sheldon Adelson.” Stephanopoulos seized the moment, asking: “Are you lumping her in with them?” Choosing to refer to the 2010 supreme court decision that removed limits on corporate political donations, rather than address the question directly, Sanders replied: “What I am saying is that I get very frightened about the future of American democracy when this becomes a battle between billionaires.
  • (4) Among the dead were two young young officers, Major Mujahid Ali and Captain Usman, whose life stories the media seized upon, helped by the military's public relations machine.
  • (5) Remember, if he did seize group power and dispose of the Independent , he'd still be boss of the rest of INM: 200 or so papers and magazines around the world, dominant voices in Australasia, South Africa, India and Ireland itself, 100 million readers a week.
  • (6) Lieberman said: "[Amazon's] decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material.
  • (7) Generals who have mutinied have seized the capital of South Sudan's largest state, Jonglei, and its main oil-producing area, Unity State.
  • (8) The coroner also raised concerns that although the aim of the operation in which Duggan was killed was to take guns off the streets, little attempt was made to seize weapons believed to be held by Hutchinson-Foster.
  • (9) Employers seize the workers’ passports and the only body that can issue a permit for a worker to leave Qatar is the employer himself.
  • (10) Backlogs and staff shortages have long been seized upon by veterans groups lobbying for more resources, but it is the apparent cover-up of the scale of the problem that has transformed these latest complaints into a growing political problem for the White House.
  • (11) Social media has seized on the story, turning the Eastern Washington University’s professor of African studies into a figure vilified and mocked for cultural appropriation in the midst of fraught debates over transgender identity and police shootings of black people.
  • (12) A Yazidi lawmaker, a Kurdish security official and an Iraqi official from the nearby city of Sinjar gave similar accounts, saying Isis fighters had massacred scores of Yazidi men on Friday afternoon after seizing Kocho.
  • (13) "This is a formidable challenge, requiring step changes in the rate at which we improve our energy efficiency and in low-carbon innovation.The Carbon Trust's proposals recognise the need for us to be smarter in focusing our investments, including to help businesses seize the economic opportunities of the transition."
  • (14) The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since 1979, when a group of student protesters seized the US embassy in Tehran and took US officials hostage.
  • (15) The militants have also seized a huge chunk of territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border, and have declared a self-styled caliphate in the territory they control.
  • (16) But the Tories edited out a crucial final sentence in which Balls told BBC Radio Leeds on 9 January : “But I think we can be tougher and we should be and we will.” Labour seized on the Tory editing of the Balls interview to accuse the Tories of misleading people to defend their refusal to tackle tax avoidance.
  • (17) The Ukrainian president, Oleksandr Turchynov, had given pro-Russian locals in eastern Ukraine until Monday morning to give up their arms and the buildings they had seized, but instead a pro-Russian mob took over yet another government building in Horlivka that day.
  • (18) The terrorists know that if Iraq and Afghanistan survive their assault, come through their travails, seize the opportunity the future offers, then those countries will stand not just as nations liberated from oppression, but as a lesson to humankind everywhere and a profound antidote to the poison of religious extremism.
  • (19) In 2014, they seized on Osborne’s declaration of a “northern powerhouse” to promote One North, a plan for a £15bn network, dubbed HS3, between Lancashire and Yorkshire.
  • (20) The president’s supporters seized on the incident to plant seeds of confusion and false equivalency: if that Russia story was wrong, perhaps all of them are wrong?