: 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
Mark Coleman
grippingly
adverb
a grippingly honest performance
Examples of gripping in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Intelligent, currently topical, great cast, gripping story line, terminated at a crisis point.
—Rich Heldenfels, Boston Herald, 25 Jan. 2026
Reichardt loves to show process and gives us a gripping minute of Larry the driver hot-wiring a car, his hands invisible below the dashboard.
—Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 21 Jan. 2026
Forugh Farrokhzad’s The House Is Black (1967), Raymond Depardon’s gripping account of the last days of a psychiatric hospital on the brink of shutting down allows viewers access to a world otherwise hidden from the public.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 20 Jan. 2026
During nine days of testimony, jurors have heard at times gripping and emotional testimony from teachers who recounted the terrifying moments when the 18-year-old gunman entered the school and killed 19 students and two teachers.
—CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gripping
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Rich Heldenfels, Boston Herald, 25 Jan. 2026
Reichardt loves to show process and gives us a gripping minute of Larry the driver hot-wiring a car, his hands invisible below the dashboard.
—Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 21 Jan. 2026
Forugh Farrokhzad’s The House Is Black (1967), Raymond Depardon’s gripping account of the last days of a psychiatric hospital on the brink of shutting down allows viewers access to a world otherwise hidden from the public.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 20 Jan. 2026
During nine days of testimony, jurors have heard at times gripping and emotional testimony from teachers who recounted the terrifying moments when the 18-year-old gunman entered the school and killed 19 students and two teachers.
—CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gripping
Cite this Entry
“Gripping.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gripping. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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