get a grip on

Idioms and Phrases

Also, have a grip on . Obtain mastery or control over something or someone. For example, Get a grip on yourself or the reporters will give you a hard time , or, as Arthur Conan Doyle put it in Sherlock Holmes (1894): “I have a grip on the essential facts of the case.” This expression transfers a firm physical hold to emotional or intellectual control. [Late 1800s]