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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be irrationally irritated by the use of the term "Grab" for everything?

33 replies

familycourtq · 04/07/2019 10:11

Grab a coffee, grab some lunch etc etc. Just why?

I knew it was getting bad when I noticed the instructions in the little LCD screen on a printer at work warned me "do not grab sheets until printing is complete"

I expect, like the current fashion for saying "wait" five times in every sentence this comes from US TV,

OP posts:
CasperGutman · 04/07/2019 10:14

This drives me insane. I'm a science teacher, and a fair proportion of my Y7 pupils begin every experimental method "Grab the equipment" or something similar. Most are easily trained out of this but a few really can't see why I have a problem with it. It just means the same as collect/pick up to them.

SpunBodgeSquarepants · 04/07/2019 10:19

I've never really noticed it before but I will now, thanks OP 😂 It's a horrible sounding word too... Grab.

MayFayner · 04/07/2019 10:21

I hate “grab bag” 😬

Although I’m not sure what it is. I must have seen it somewhere.

WeLoveToBoogieOnASaturdayNight · 04/07/2019 10:29

yanbu. It drives me nuts, too. I especially seethe at "grab a shower"

Ponoka7 · 04/07/2019 10:30

Sometimes it's appropriate. You grab a coffee on the go, type of thing.

But the printer one is incorrect, so really annoying.

Anarchyshake · 04/07/2019 10:32

It's just another way of putting something, our language is constantly evolving and so on. I wouldn't want to write the word in an essay, it's effectively informal and what's the word, not slang, argh. It's too early for my brain.

LinoleumBlownapart · 04/07/2019 10:32

I've felt this for a long time. It's horrible. I remember it was a joke during the London riots, people had been told to "grab this" and "grab that" for so long that they decided to act on it!

echt · 04/07/2019 10:35

I'm proud to say I posted about a version of this phenomenon years ago on MN as a particularly horrible aspect of Australian shopping that caught my attention on arrival. This only applied to clothes shops:

Assistant: Is that all you're going to grab today?
Me: (inwardly) ODFOD.

They all did it, so it must have been some fuckwit training they all had to endure.

It's stopped now, or I've stopped buying clothes. Meh. Whatever.

MayFayner · 04/07/2019 10:41

what's the word, not slang, argh.

Colloquial?

I must say I would welcome “grab a shower” from DH, though, because it would be a break from “jump in the shower”. DH has “jumped in” the shower every single day since we’ve lived together. He always announces it. We have a shower over bath so I’m not sure what gymnastics are involved.

DirtyDennis · 04/07/2019 10:45

I haven't really noticed this to the same extent as you, OP. I have, though, noticed it creeping in a bit.

I also hate everyone popping at everything. Popping to the shops, popping a chicken in the oven, popping some music on.

So fucking twee.

I once read a reply on a thread which advised the OP to "pop a tampon in" and I did lots of sick in my mouth.

Tadpoletofrog · 04/07/2019 10:50

I went for a pedicure last week. The amount of popping I had to do was amazing.

Pop your feet in here
Just pop your foot on my knee
Pop over there and choose a colour
Pop your self on this chair

She popped too..

I’m just popping out the back for a towel...

The word pop lost all meaning by the end...

probstimeforanewname · 04/07/2019 10:52

:) This thread made me laugh. Love all the popping!

MoMandaS · 04/07/2019 10:56

I hate it too, but actually the printer message is a correct use of it in my opinion! People do tend to (literally) grab the paper before the printer has completely stopped churning it out, so I think the message is advising people to be gentle as well as wait until it's finished.

DontCallMeShitley · 04/07/2019 10:57

Bob.
Bob out, bob round, I have visions of people nodding and bowing as they go.

CollaterlyS1sters · 04/07/2019 11:02

I agree, but I hate 'cheeky' more than the rest of these combined.

separatebeds · 04/07/2019 11:07

I know someone who 'grabs the kids' from school . grabs them from the bus stops. Could you grab little Jonny for me?

newmomof1 · 04/07/2019 11:14

@MayFayner 'grab bags' are generally bags of sweets

DirtyDennis · 04/07/2019 11:19

@separatebeds Ha! You paint a really vivid picture. I've got images of a child standing with his back to the road eating an ice cream as he's yanked by the hood into a passing car through the passenger window. Now that's grabbing the kids Grin

Siameasy · 04/07/2019 11:20

Grab bags are large bags of crisps seen at petrol stations. Not sure why the “grab”. It’s annoying and grab sounds entitled

What do you mean OP about “wait”

Original poster
familycourtq · 04/07/2019 11:25

What do you mean OP about “wait”

My DD, 11, uses "wait" as punctuation, from the US TV she watches.

OP posts:
bluebluezoo · 04/07/2019 11:26

Grab now is just a meaningless sound i’ve read it so often..

Grabgrabgrabgrabgrab.

For me atm it’s “drop”. People are dropping things all over the place. Things are dropping on the tv, in shops, dropping singles on the radio.

Whole book displays tipping over, things smashing on the floor, all this dropping will cause anarchy!

Original poster
familycourtq · 04/07/2019 11:29

It's everywhere - look at the IKEA thread -
and I grab some salmon
and I wanted to grab
*then grabbed sweets8

OP posts:
DirtyDennis · 04/07/2019 11:32

@bluebluezoo YES! First time I heard it was about a "mic-drop". I was really confused and I thought the singer had genuinely dropped their microphone mid-way through a song

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 04/07/2019 11:32

Pops of colour really sets my teeth on edge. Ugh.

I tend to notice 'grab' more in the context of 'grabby'; a word, incidentally, which more often than not appears on the wedding threads!

arseabouttit · 04/07/2019 11:40

Surely the printer thing means don't snatch or pull the paper out of the printer before it has finished printing? In that case I don't think grab is incorrect. To me it implies grasping at speed!

(Misses point of thread)

I agree with those who dislike "grab a shower" or jump / hop in the shower but I suppose using those words also imply something that is short or over quickly? As opposed to DD who most definitely does not grab/hop or jump into the shower- she's in the bloody thing for days.