Object

• nettle: Senior Labor politicians are saying we should grasp the taxation nettle to help our public services.

• concept: We will support your efforts to grasp the concepts.

• significance: No need to grasp beforehand the significance of the whole.

• hand-hold: Whoever rejects evil and believes in God has indeed grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks.

• meaning: Today we have barely begun to grasp the meaning of the words.

• truth: By our own understanding we would never grasp this truth.

Converse of object

• demonstrate: You should demonstrate a clear grasp of the budgetary implications of the project.

Preposition: at

• straw: It wasn't much, but drowning men grasp at straws and this was the first straw in 3 1/2 years.

Adjective modifier

• tenuous: Children sometimes have a tenuous grasp of where food comes from, for example the belief that ' chips come from London ' .

• rudimentary: At that time, the CPI consisted of barely a few dozen cadres with only a rudimentary grasp of Marxism and Bolshevik functioning.

• intuitive: Unlike the experts, most people have an intuitive grasp of the social meaning of genetics.

• thorough: He is on very solid ground, his thorough grasp of historical theology having already been ably demonstrated in earlier writings.

• instinctive: Tony Blair's instinctive grasp of these class interests underlies his zealous advocacy of US imperialism.

• shaky: Such an assumption belies a shaky grasp of what genes actually do.

Noun used with modifier

• firm: A second PDS is placed in the same manner to achieve a firm grasp of the CA ligament.

Used with why or when

• what: I didn't fully grasp what she was talking about.

Preposition: of

• grammar: A basic grasp of grammar is all that is necessary for your course.

• reality: People will start to question our grasp of reality, or think we are being deliberately obtuse.

• concept: In fact, I doubt that you would ever be able to get a fundamental grasp of such concepts.

• math: The course depends heavily on detailed mathematical calculation and students without a good grasp of basic maths will find that they struggle.