subs. (vulgar).—1. A sudden clutch.
1835. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 1st S., ch. viii. He makes a GRAB at me, and I shuts the door right to on his wrist.
2. (American).—A robbery; a STEAL (q.v.). Cf., GRAB-GAINS.
3. (old).—A body-stealer; a resurrectionist.
1830. S. WARREN, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xvi. Sir ——’s dressers and myself, with an experienced GRAB—that is to say, a professional resurrectionist—were to set off from the Borough.
4. (gamesters’).—A boisterous game at cards.
Verb (vulgar).—1. To PINCH (q.v.); to seize; to apprehend; to snatch or steal. GRABBED = arrested.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum. The pigs GRABBED the kiddy for a crack: the officers seized the youth for a burglary.
1818. MAGINN, Vidocq’s Slang Song Versified.
| Tramp it, tramp it, my jolly blowen, | |
| Or be GRABBED by the beaks we may. |
1837. BULWER-LYTTON, Ernest Maltravers, Wk. I., ch. x. There, man, GRAB the money, it’s on the table.
1837. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, ch. xiii. Do you want to be GRABBED, stupid?
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 39. Don’t muddle your brains with any more of that Pharaoh. You’ll need all your strength to GRAB him.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, iii., 396. I was GRABBED for an attempt on a gentleman’s pocket.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 236. I watched a movement till one of the servant girls had brought another load of grub out, and as she turned her back and went into the house I GRABBED the key and so they couldn’t lock it nohow.
1886. BARING-GOULD, Golden Feather, p. 23 (S.P.C.K.). There are some folks … so grasping that if they touch a farthing will GRAB a pound.
2. (thieves’).—To hold on; to get along; to live.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, iii., 149. I do manage to GRAB on somehow.
