handygripes

English

Alternative forms

• handy gripes, handy-gripes

Noun

handygripes pl (plural only)

1. (obsolete) Seizure by, or grasp of, the hand; close quarters in fighting.
   • c. 1660–1680, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part I, canto III:

     For now the mastives, charging home, / To blows and handygripes were come:

Synonyms

• grappling, wrestling

Anagrams

• phryganeids