English · Idiom Candidate

come to grips with

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To finally understand or deal with a difficult situation

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cuối cùng hiểu hoặc đối phó với tình huống khó khăn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: physically grasp something

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

After all, how can anyone sort out their problems if they haven't come to grips with themselves?’

I don't regret it, of course— I might never have been a priest otherwise — but I often think that that's why I just don't seem able to come to grips with the modern world.’

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “come to grips with” mean?

To finally understand or deal with a difficult situation Literally: physically grasp something

Is “come to grips with” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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