gripping

adjective

grip·​ping ˈgri-piŋ 

: taking a powerful hold upon one's interest or feelings

a gripping thriller

Shabba Ranks has a gripping baritone voice that ranges from bedroom purr to locker-room-boast roar.

—Mark Coleman

grippingly adverb

a grippingly honest performance

Examples of gripping in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Justin Timberlake and Alicia Silverstone costar in the gripping mystery. —Eric Andersson, Peoplemag, 2 Sep. 2023

Tying everything together is a gripping score by Philip Glass, with Paul Leonard-Morgan, a breathlessly atonal composition that simultaneously is unsettling and puts fans instantly at home in an Errol Morris film. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Sep. 2023

Also this week, guest National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences President and CEO Adam Sharp discusses the diversity of the organization’s judges and Times staffers recommend a gripping Korean reality competition and a tense Navajo noir. —Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2023

Her book, The Coldest Winter Ever provided a gripping narrative that dove into the realities of urban life. —Shelby Stewart, Essence, 11 Aug. 2023

Burden's gripping account, Dragon Lizards of Komodo, inspired his friend Merian C. Cooper to dream up the primordial Skull Island for his classic 1933 film, King Kong. —Sunil Badami, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 July 2023

In a gripping testimony last year in front of the House Jan. 6 committee, Ms. Hutchinson described how Mr. Trump, knowing his supporters were armed and threatening violence on Jan. 6, urged them to march to Capitol anyhow — and even sought to join them. —Alan Feuer, New York Times, 3 Aug. 2023

This gripping and unfailingly sympathetic documentary follows Ugandan opposition leader and activist Bobi Wine, a pop star-turned- politician from the slums of Kampala who has used music to denounce his country’s dictatorship. —Dallasnews.com Staff, Dallas News, 3 Aug. 2023

Instead of simply seeing the bureaucrats and scientists, Chernobyl does a historically accurate and gripping job of placing you in the lives of the firefighters, volunteers, miners, and litany of regular people who risked their lives to help save others. —Keith Nelson, Men's Health, 27 July 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined above